South Cape TVET College, also referred to as SCC, is situated across the famous Garden Route, the Little and Central Karoo, the catchment area of South Cape TVET College is 80 822 km², which is the largest of the six TVET Colleges in the Western Cape.
SCC has six Campuses across the Garden Route, Klein Karroo District and Central Karoo District. Campuses are the Beaufort West Campus, Bitou Campus in Plettenberg Bay, George Campus, Hessequa Campus in Riversdale, Mossel Bay Campus and the Oudtshoorn Campus.
The management and coordination of the campuses happens at the central office, located in George. All senior management team members are centrally located there.
The institution was established in the year 2000 and was the pilot site for College mergers in South Africa. SCC comprises of the amalgamation of the following colleges:
- George Technical College, founded in 1968,
- Oudtshoorn Technical College, founded in 1981,
- South Cape Technical Institute in George, which started its first activities in the early 1980s, and
- Mossel Bay College which started operating in 1993 as a satellite of the Oudtshoorn Technical College.
After the successful integration of the SCC amalgamation, other college mergers followed suit from 2002 onwards.
Changes such as the South Cape TVET College merger were not without their growing pains. Staff had to adapt to change as there was now a Central Office, and each previous Technical College was now a Campus of a bigger Institution and could no longer make autonomous decisions.
In 2007 a new study path, the National Certificate Vocational (NCV) field was introduced to Colleges. These qualifications were targeted towards youth who left school and had not matriculated, but had passed Grade 9. SCC enthusiastically piloted approximately 10 of these new programmes with intakes at the George, Mossel Bay and Oudtshoorn Campuses. With these new qualifications available, the National N Diploma Courses were then phased out at all Campuses at the time, but were later re-introduced due to policy ammendments.
Within just one year the College had narrowed down their programme offerings down to nine courses. In so doing, the idea was to create niche campuses. This lead to infrastructure being erected at specific campuses to focus on specific courses within the identified niche. Oudtshoorn Campus had large kitchens built to serve as the number one choice for Hospitality Studies. Mossel Bay Campus quickly became best option to study Engineering Courses with its large electrical, building and mechanical workshops installed.
South Cape TVET College incorporated the new change in 2012, where Colleges underwent a name change from Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges to be known as Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Colleges.
The College expanded its Programme Qualification Mix (PQM) to include Report 191 Business Studies at the George and Oudtshoorn Campuses and Report 191 Engineering Studies at the Mossel Bay Campus. This was a much needed change for the communities which these Campuses serve as not many matriculants could afford to go to University. This offered an alternative and a very clear career path. Even though it started only at two Campuses, the Report 191 courses are currently offered across all Campuses of South Cape TVET College.
As from April 2014 Colleges started migrating from the Department of Education to the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) with the final migration process in April 2016. This lead to a portion of staff becoming DHET staff and the remainder; College Council Staff. Colleges began to adopt the national Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) policies and procedures. During this transitional time South Cape TVET College bid farewell to the previous CEO, Mr Luvuyo Ngubelanga who took up the office of Principal at Lovedale College. The new Principal, Mrs Elsie Potgieter took office at South Cape TVET College during August 2015.
Even though there were many changes and challenges over the years, South Cape TVET College is still standing proud. Proud to serve the community of the Garden Route District Municipality, Central Karoo District, and Kannaland Municipality, proud of our staff who bring quality and excellent service to technical and vocational training. The College Management and staff are anticipating an exciting next decade!