We are asking too little of our TVET colleges.
We have spent years talking about how crucial the technical and vocational education and training colleges could be in solving SA’s unemployment crisis.
We talk about skills shortages, employability, the need to prepare young people for a changing economy.
But what if TVET colleges were not only institutions preparing young people to enter the economy, but places that build economies around them?
This question matters particularly in township and rural communities, where opportunities are often limited and small businesses carry much of the responsibility for creating livelihoods.
A TVET college sitting in the middle of a township or rural town should be more than a place where young people attend lectures before returning home.
It could become a local economic development node, connecting skills, innovation, entrepreneurship, and existing businesses.
Imagine a construction student who does not simply graduate looking for employment but develops the skills to set up a small construction and maintenance company.
Imagine an agricultural student who sees an opportunity to process, and then package that produce, rather than simply looking for a job on a farm.
Imagine a motor mechanic who builds a business servicing taxis and small commercial fleets in his community.
This is not an argument that every student should become an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is not a substitute for employment.
But our definition of vocational education could be broader: skills should equip people not only to participate in existing economic activity, but sometimes to create it.
There is another opportunity that deserves far more attention: in-service training. For many students, workplace training can become a box-ticking exercise.
A student is placed at a business, completes the required hours, receives a signature and moves on.
What if we changed the purpose of that placement? What if every student was challenged to name and help solve a real problem facing the business?
A township manufacturer might be losing money because of production waste.
A rural farmer might struggle with post-harvest losses. A small retailer might have poor stock control. A construction company might be losing time and money because of inefficient processes.
These are not merely problems for business owners. They are learning opportunities.
A mechanical engineering student could help design a low-cost piece of equipment or manufacturing process.
An IT student could develop or implement a basic stock management system.
An agricultural student could investigate ways of reducing post-harvest losses. A business student could help analyse costs and improve pricing. Suddenly, in-service training becomes more than work experience. It becomes a form of community problem-solving.
This could even become a formal part of the TVET ecosystem.
Colleges could keep a database of problems given by local township and rural businesses. Students, supported by lecturers and industry partners, could work on those problems as practical projects.
The measure of success would then change.
Instead of asking only how many students completed workplace training, we could ask: how many businesses did they help become more productive? How many problems were solved? How much waste was reduced? How many products were developed? How many of those solutions became businesses themselves?
Because innovation does not always look like an app developed in a technology hub.
Sometimes innovation is a cheaper production process. A machine adapted to local conditions. A better way of packaging food. A system that saves a small business thousands of rands a month.
For a township or rural business working on thin margins, that can be transformative. There is also an entrepreneurial opportunity hidden inside this model.
A student who solves a problem for one business may discover that hundreds of other businesses have the same problem.
The solution can then become a product or service. This creates a pathway from in-service training to problem-solving, from problem-solving to innovation, and from innovation to enterprise creation.
That is the kind of relationship our TVET colleges could have with their communities. The township economy does not only need more entrepreneurs.
It needs more productive entrepreneurs, better businesses and locally relevant solutions. Perhaps then the question we should ask of a TVET college is not simply how many graduates it produces.
We should also ask: How many problems have those graduates helped their communities solve? Because a TVET college should not have to wait for the economy to create opportunities for its graduates. In some cases, it can help create the opportunities itself.
Bohlale Buzani is a business consultant and youth empowerment advocate, as well as a founding member of an award-winning SME and the vibrant Kasi Konversations network in Mdantsane