Flexible Learning: Opening Post-School Education in South Africa through Responsive Delivery Options

The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) seeks to expand the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college sector to enrol 2.5 million students by 2030 (DHET 2013). This ambition was revealed at a time just after this sector had almost doubled from a modest 358,000 students in 2010 to 658,000 in 2012 (DHET 2021). Things were looking positive back then. But since reaching a peak enrolment of 738,000 in 2015, the numbers have stagnated and dropped back to 673,000 in 2019 (ibid.). Based on this trajectory, the TVET sector will need to quadruple enrolments over the next eight years to hit the DHET’s 2030 target.