An Overview

Founding/Background

Tshwane North College for Further Education and Training (FET) is a public institution that is the product of the merger of the then three former technical Colleges: Mamelodi , Pretoria and Soshanguve Colleges as regulated by the FET Colleges Acts no 98 of 1998 and 16 of 2006.

Tshwane North College for FET comprises of the following 5 campuses that serve diverse communities and that are geographically wide spread:

  • Pretoria Campus in the CBD serving Central Pretoria and surrounding areas.
  • Soshanguve Campus (divided into Soshanguve South and Soshanguve North) (also serving the communities of Mabopane, Garankuwa, Hebron and Klipgat)
  • Mamelodi Campus (also serving the communities of Cullinan, Metsing Municipality and Dinokeng)
  • Temba Campus (also serving the communities of Ratsietane, Sekampaneng and the Waterberg Municipal areas.
  • Rosslyn Campus ideally situated in the hub of the Automotive industry and attracting students for Occupational Programmes from especially the Auto Motive Industries as well as the Central Pretoria.

The College offers high quality programmes to the communities in and around Tshwane Metropolis. The target markets are the out of school youths requiring a second chance (who either passed at least Grade 9 to enrol for formal programmes or those who would like to acquire soft skills in the form of short courses which do not require a formal qualification), secondary school students with an interest to specialize in the vocational fields, and adults who would like to further their studies or improve their qualifications (life- long learning).

Programmes and courses:The following National Certificate (Vocational) programmes are being offered:

  • Business Studies: Finance Economics and Accounting (Pretoria and Soshanguve Campuses) Marketing (Pretoria Campus), Generic Management (Pretoria Campus) and Office Administration (Mamelodi and Soshanguve Campuses);
  • Engineering Studies: Electrical Infrastructure Construction (Mamelodi and Soshanguve Campuses), Engineering and Related Design (Temba Campus) (this includes Auto Motive; Fabrication as well as Fitting and Turning) Civil Engineering and Building Construction (Soshanguve and Mamelodi Campuses), Information Technology and Computer Science (Mamelodi Campus)
  • Utility Studies: Tourism (Pretoria Campus), Hospitality (Pretoria Campus) and Safety and Society (Temba Campus).

The National Certificate (Vocational) programmes all consist of 40% theoretical and 60% practical components. These programmes are therefore more practically inclined.
The National Certificate (Vocational) programmes address analytical and critical skills such as problem solving; numeracy Mathematics and mathematical literacy as well as English Communication Skills and Computer literacy.

The College offers programmes at NQF Levels 2 to 4, including occupational programmes that are aimed at addressing skills shortages and other socio-economic challenges.
The intention of these programmes is to prepare students either to enter the workplace directly or to undertake further learning to acquire a specialized occupational qualification.
Facilities and key strengthsT

Tshwane North College boasts facilities such as a training restaurant, a bakery, industrial kitchens, simulated enterprise offices, practical workshops, hairdressing salons and cosmetology salons and Computer laboratories.The training restaurant and industrial kitchens afford Hospitality students the opportunity to obtain practical knowledge regarding catering and waitressing.

Students that are doing business related National Certificate (Vocational) programmes are obtaining a variety of practical skills in the simulated enterprise offices where office related duties such as faxing, meeting procedures, managerial, financial and marketing skills are being simulated.P

ractical workshops afford students in the National Certificate (Vocational) Engineering fields of study the opportunity to get to know and first -hand experience the operation of technical equipment.
Information Technology students are afforded the opportunity to work in well-equipped Computer laboratories.

The aim of all these facilities at the College is to ensure that students have acquired the necessary practical skills required in a workplace environment.

In the Hairdressing- and Cosmetology salons students are afforded the opportunity to practically work on clients and to obtain practical skills related to the respective industries.

The aim of the College is that students should understand and get to know the nature of workplaces in their selected vocations/occupations.                              

Report 190/191(Popularly known as NATED Programmes):

  • Business Studies N4 – N6:

Financial Management (Pretoria, Mamelodi Soshanguve and Temba Campuses) , Human Resources Management (Pretoria, Soshanguve, Mamelodi and Temba Campuses, Marketing Management (Soshanguve, Temba and Pretoria Campuses), Public Relations (Soshanguve, Temba and Pretoria Campuses); Management Assistant (Soshanguve, Temba and Pretoria Campuses)and Clothing and Production (Pretoria Campus)

  • Engineering Studies N4 – N6:

Civil Engineering (Mamelodi and Soshanguve Campuses), Electrical Engineering (Soshanguve and Mamelodi Campuses) and Mechanical Engineering (Soshanguve and Mamelodi Campuses)

Internationally recognized and Accredited Programmes:

  • International Computer Drivers Licence (ICDL)
  • Cosmetology with accredited Cosmetology salon
  • Hairdressing with accredited hairdressing salon.
  • Clothing Production Levels 1 and 2
  • Craft and Confectionery Baking

Accredited Programmes:

  • Welding Levels 2-4 offered in an accredited workshop
  • Boiler making Level 2 offered in an accredited workshop
  • Motor Mechanic offered in an accredited Auto Motive Workshop.
  • Clothing Production (Garment Making; Curtain Making and Linen Making)
  • End user Computing NQF Level 3

Other Occupational Programmes:

Carpentry; Welding; Masonry (Bricklaying) Plumbing; Motor Body Repairs; Woodwork; Cabinetmaking; Electrical; Joiner and Building that are not accredited yet. The College is striving towards accrediting all programmes and work shops.

Learnerships offered during 2010:

The following Engineering Studies learnerships had been offered at Rosslyn Campus for AIDC during 2010:

  • Automotive Repair and Maintenance- 2 groups of 20 and 15 students respectively.
  • Automotive Components Maintenance-2 groups of 20 and 25 students respectively.
  • Fabrication – 15 students
  • Welding – 3 groups of 17, 10 and 30 students respectively.

Apart from offering learnerships Rosslyn Campus also did Apprenticeship training for JCB – for 6 students each for Levels 2, 3 and 4 students.

The Campus is furthermore involved in preparing students for Trade tests.

Learnerships that will be offered during 2011:

Rosslyn Campus is offering a Welding learnership to 20 students from Hydro as from Monday 17 January 2011.

Pretoria Campus is offering a Home Based Care learnership to 260 students as from Monday 17 January 2011.

Lecturing staff:

The College has a staff compliment of 303 highly qualified and skilled lecturers. Of these, 92 lecturers had been trained as assessors and 45 as moderators.

Annual enrolments:
In 2010 12 832 students had been enrolled but the College enrols approximately 10 000 students annually.

The vision for the future:
The College is aiming at extending and strengthening existing partnerships and to forge new relationships with Commerce and Industry and SETAS in 2011.