By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Higher Education and Training Deputy Minister, Buti Manamela, says a structured and continuous capacity building programme for Student Representative Councils (SRC) will go a long way to defusing potential conflict in the institutions of higher learning.
“There is always scepticism and cynicism whenever student leaders debate issues impacting their lives across our college campuses and their future. However, my view has always been that properly trained and workshopped student leaders are unlikely to cause disruptions to teaching and learning,” Manamela said.
Manamela was speaking at the Annual National Student Leadership Induction Programme for the Student Representative Council and the South African Technical and Vocational Education and Training Students Association (SATVETSA) in Boksburg, Gauteng.
The induction programme is the brainchild of the 2018 Student Support Services Conference, which mandated the department and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges to develop a standardised, continuous capacity building programme for student leaders.
The convention is that the programme must ideally start with induction for newly elected student leaders.
Manamela said the training of student leaders impacts on the prospects of their success, even after leaving college for other destinations, including the world of work, further learning or even self-employment.
“The hosting of this induction programme is very critical as it provides student leaders – the intended beneficiaries of this initiative – with a platform to share their final input on the development of a standardised capacity building programme of our future leaders, that is, the SRCs in the TVET college sector.
“One of our critical tasks is to ensure that we consolidate all the inputs in developing a standardised, continuous capacity building programme for student leaders during the course of this year,” Manamela said.
The development of the programme for student leaders demonstrates the department’s commitment to introduce responsive programmes and capacity development training, with a specific focus on leadership skills such as negotiation, communication, conflict resolution and diversity management – all intended to capacitate student leaders to execute their mandate.
“This induction programme provides TVET stakeholders with a platform to debate a shared vision of what we want current and future student representatives to be trained on, and develop an induction manual that will be used by all the TVET colleges after electing new student leaders,” Manamela said.