Three colleges within the Nkangala Further Education and Training (FET) College scheme recently received electric motors, switchgears, soft starters and other electric equipment as part of a donation from the Zest WEG Group.

Nokuthula Shabangu, the company’s CSI project manager, explains that the Nkangala FET College scheme was formed in 2003 with the merger of the Witbank, Middelburg, Mpondozankomo and CN Mahlangu campuses (formerly technical colleges) in the Nkangala region.

Watervalboven campus was transferred in 2011 from Ehlanzeni FET College and the Nkangala Further Education and Training College was formed after the adoption of the FET Act of 1996 by Parliament.

“The College is the largest educational institution in the Mpumalanga province, serving the community in the Nkangala region. The majority of the learners are drawn primarily from the densely populated urban areas of Witbank and Middelburg.

“The remainder of the students hail from the rural areas of the former Kwa-Ndebele and Watervalboven. In 2007, 719 students were enrolled in NC(V) programmes and 11 917 students in Nated 191 courses. More than 95% of the students come from the previously disadvantaged groups,” she explains.

The College offers eight NC(V) programmes, namely civil engineering and building construction, electrical infrastructure construction, engineering and related design, finance, economics and accounting, hospitality, tourism, information technology and computer science as well as office administration.

“The donation of Zest WEG Group products to the scheme will provide learners with critical access to current technology. Once they enter the workplace, after successful completion of their respective courses, they will be equipped to handle all the equipment we have provided,” Shabangu concludes.