MANAGEMENT AND COMMERCE An alternative to the universities? Investigating service quality at TVET Colleges Professor Kim Viljoen and Professor Liezel Cilliers the Department of Higher Education circulation of a link to the survey over and Training for some years now. a period of six months resulted in In a speech made in June this year, 9,494 responses. The survey itself was the Minister of Higher Education based on adaptations of SERVQUAL, and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, the most consistently and widely used demonstrated his awareness of this measure of service quality, frequently need by declaring his determination used in the context of education. to ‘grow the TVET section faster and The study then drew on descriptive enable subsidy and infrastructure statistics (using percentages and funding that can support its rapid means) to represent students’ student enrolment growth’. perceptions. What do students think of TVET Eighty percent of the students who Colleges though? In South Africa, responded to the survey reported Professor Kim Viljoen one of the main factors affecting being satisfied or very satisfied in students’ decisions as they leave responses exploring, amongst other school is employability and, as UFH things, lecturers’ friendliness, their n South Africa, an argument is researchers Professor Kim Viljoen knowledge and professionalism, often made that our post-schooling of the Department of Business processes related to registration, the competence and accessibility of education system needs reshaping. Management and Professor I In 2022, fewer than half a million Liezel Cilliers of the Department administrative staff, the standard of young people were enrolled in of Information Systems point out, work and course content, facilities on Technical and Vocational Education service quality (SQ) has been reported the campuses and campus location. and Training (TVET) colleges, while as influencing students’ perceptions Importantly, the study also explored more than a million were registered of employability. The two researchers’ students’ access and use of in the universities. In other countries, study into service quality at TVET technology, with Professors Viljoen the proportions in the different Colleges was therefore important, not and Cilliers discovering that 77% of all sectors are very different. In Germany, least because it offered the promise respondents owned a smartphone, long noted as one of the economic of producing recommendations that but only 9% had a laptop computer. success stories of Europe, a relatively could be used to improve service As many as 980 of the respondents small proportion of young people provision and make this sector of do not own any device on which go into the universities. Many more post-secondary education more they could learn online. Most school leavers enrol in a range of attractive to school leavers. respondents noted the high cost technical and vocational institutions Professors Viljoen and Cilliers used of data as an obstacle to online across the country. a survey to engage with all students learning, with many also indicating The need to reshape the post- over the age of 18 registered for study that connectivity was a problem. school system has been a focus of at the country’s 50 TVET Colleges. The However, overall students appeared 51 | University of Fort Hare