Plumbing Africa June 2017 | Page 13

EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS 11 Active TVET It was good to attend a partnership meeting recently at the South West Gauteng College (SWGC), a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college. This forms part of Plumbing Africa’s linking with the TVET colleges’ programmes. By Rory Macnamara Certainly not one of your ‘accept and non-attend’ events; instead, a bustling number of people all with one common goal: the education of our young people. The SWGC covers six campuses plus their contact centre and the Land is Wealth Farm in Sterkfontein. The campuses are Dobsonville, Molapo, Roodepoort West, George Tabor, Roodepoort, and Technisa. The college also offers a distance learning programme. Their contact centre is strategically placed at the Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown, Soweto. 1 1. Among the speakers was Dr Rob Schuur, chair of the Board of Noorderpoort, Netherlands, with whom the college has had a long and rewarding relationship for many years. The principal CEO, Dan Nkosi, spoke of the growing need for colleges to be accessible to students and the SWGC has achieved this well. The college offers business studies, finance, economics and accounting, office administration, engineering, civil engineering and building construction (this includes plumbing level 2 to 4), electrical infrastructure construction, engineering and related design, utility studies, education and development, hospitality, IT, primary agriculture, primary health, a range of business studies, and management. The partnership meeting, catered well for by the college’s own students, gave the college and the partners the opportunity to hear of the progress the college has been making. Partners may provide donations in money or kind, which is put towards state-of-the-art equipment and an environment that is conducive to learning. 2 2. 3. Jabu Malikoe, past student and now with ABSA. Stanley Matende, programme director of SWGC. Dr Rob Schuur of Noorderpoort (on left) with Dan Nkosi, principal CEO of SWGC. 3 As Nkosi stated — and this is from the students who acknowledge the contribution of the college to their growth — “SWGC, period — enough said!” PA “SWGC, period — enough said!” www.plumbingafrica.co.za June 2017 Volume 23 I Number 4