South Cape TVET College, also referred to as SCC, is situated across the famous Garden Route, Kannaland and Central Karoo Districts, 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.
The six campuses of SCC are located in Beaufort West, Plettenberg Bay (Bitou Campus), George, Riversdale (Hessequa Campus), Mossel Bay, and Oudtshoorn.
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 2000, with the amalgamation of the George Technical College (initially the George Technical Institute, founded in 1968), Oudtshoorn Technical College (initially the Technical Institute in Oudtshoorn, founded in 1981), the South Cape Technical Institute in George, which started its first activities in the early 1980’s, and Mossel Bay Technical College which started operating in 1993 as a satellite of the Oudtshoorn Technical College.
South Cape College was the pilot site for South Africa in this regard, and college mergers followed suit from 2002 onwards.
In 2007 a new study path, the National Certificate Vocational (NCV), was introduced at the TVET Colleges. This qualification targeted the youth who obtained grade 9 but left school before completing Grade 12. South Cape TVET College started out with approximately 10 of these programmes with the largest intakes at the Oudtshoorn, George, and Mossel Bay Campuses. After just one year the College reduced its programme offerings to nine courses to create niche campuses. This would lead to the erection of infrastructure at certain campuses to focus on specific courses.
Oudtshoorn Campus had industry kitchens built to serve as the number one choice for Hospitality Studies. Mossel Bay became known as the Engineering Campus with its large engineering workshops.
In 2012 the College sector changed from Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges to Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Colleges. South Cape College then became known as South Cape TVET College. The college expanded its programme offerings and started offering 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 clear career path to the students. Even though it started only at two campuses, Report 191 courses are now offered across the six campuses of South Cape TVET College.
As from April 2014 colleges started migrating to DHET with the final migration process in April 2016. This led to a percentage of staff being employed by DHET and the remainder by the College Council. Colleges then started to adopt the DHET policies and procedures.
Albeit, many changes and challenges over the years, South Cape TVET College proudly serves the community of the Garden Route District, Central Karoo, and Kannaland Districts, and our staff continues to provide quality and excellent service to the Technical Vocational Education and Training College sector. The College Management and staff are anticipating an exciting next decade!