CPUT is the first choice for training of staff employed at Technical and Vocational Education and Training Colleges in the Western Cape.
The Department of Further Education and Training (FET) at CPUT has been training college lecturers since 2003 in line with an agreement signed by the university and local colleges.
“In order to teach at colleges lecturers should have at least a three-year FET qualification, but most of them don’t have it as they come straight from industry and go to teach at colleges,” says Andre van der Bijl, the project’s manager.
But thanks to the agreement, more than 200 college lecturers have graduated from CPUT.
Between October and November of each year Van Der Bijl meets with Human Resource Department officials of the affected colleges who identify lecturers who are eligible for up skilling.
Participating institutions include False Bay, College of Cape Town, Northlink, Boland and West Coast College.
Van Der Bijl says the success of this long-term relationship with colleges can be attributed to his department’s collegial approach to the colleges as well as its willingness to represent them in the university’s administrative processes.
“Colleges in the region prefer us to supply the service and this positions CPUT’s name nationally as one of the main producers of college lecturers.”
