COVER FEATURE: IKHALA TVET COLLEGE
As Ikhala TVET College marks 24 years in April 2026, how does this milestone reflect its journey, and what is your vision for its future? Our 24th anniversary reflects a journey of resilience, expanding access, and strengthening academic quality despite staffing, infrastructure, and accreditation challenges. As South Africa accelerates a skills revolution through occupational training and workplace integrated learning, Ikhala is advancing QCTO readiness, expanding engineering facilities, improving certification rates, and deepening industry partnerships to drive employability in rural Eastern Cape communities. Our future impact lies in delivering industry aligned occupational programmes, strengthening entrepreneurship pathways, and building a workforce that transforms the region’ s economic prospects.
How does Ikhala partner with industry to tailor training to changing sector needs? We are in the process of rolling out Stakeholder Engagement Sessions in the two different district municipalities to ensure that we inform them about the transition in our curriculum and discuss the programmes that are vital to local economic needs. We held a successful event in Joe Gqabi District Municipality in November 2025 and are planning another engagement in Chris Hani District Municipality where all stakeholders from business, municipalities, community organisations and other interested parties will be invited to come and provide input into our programme qualification mix by identifying skills that can support the local economy and
any catalytic programmes in the pipeline.
What are the benefits of work placements and apprenticeships for companies? Work placements and apprenticeships allow companies to get a firsthand understanding of the types of skills set the College students possess, from which they can identify any gaps there may be in the College’ s curriculum provision, which can in turn inform our programmes. It provides companies with an opportunity to mentor and coach students, which is a plough-back to the community and goes on their CSR scorecard. The students come with their stipends, so companies are getting an extra set of hands without having to dig deep into their pockets. Placement is critical to exposing our students to practical workplace realities.
Highlight some success stories of Ikhala graduates who’ ve made an impact. One of our students, Titus Cetywayo, has established a very successful business called Komani Automotive Pty LTD which is involved in auto repairs, logistics and towing. Furthermore, a good number of students are absorbed by both the public and private sector entities after their inservice training. For example, Yamkela Liwane was recently employed by the local eMalahleni Local Municipality as a personal assistant to the Executive Mayor after a successful completion of her in-service training. Another example is Vuyelwa Stubati, who was absorbed by Queens Casino and Hotel as a technician after her completion of their electrical engineering in-service training.
10 sabusinessintegrator. co. za