Sol-Tech college calls for more mother tongue language training

In the midst of the all the challenges facing South Africa, managing director of Solidarity’s Sol-Tech college Paul van Deventer believes not all is lost and that South Africans must come together and do something instead of relying on government to improve the standard of living.

Sol-Tech, situated in Centurion, Tshwane, is a private Afrikaans technical college which was launched in 2007.

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According to van Deventer, there are very few misconceptions about the college, especially after many people, including politicians, had the opportunity to visit the college.

He said the right story about Sol-Tech has nothing to do with race but merely to help young people gain employment by giving them training of the highest standards.

“94% of our students are in jobs with 56% are employed by the companies which accorded them the opportunity to do their practicals at while 21% of our students start their own businesses and that’s very positive.

“We actually believe that for the country to create jobs, you need entrepreneurs, you need people to start their businesses so that they can employ other people, and a former student of ours started his own business and employed around 40 people,” said van Deventer.

He went on to say that 37% end up with big companies they have been working with, employing more than 250 employees.

Sol-Tech alone cannot solve South Africa’s problems

Van Deventer stressed that the college alone is not the answer to the myriad challenges facing the country, saying their only do a small part.

He said they actually need to train 30 000 artisans a year and not the approximate 20 000, something which should have been done a long time ago.

“Hence I say Sol-Tech is not the answer to all the country’s problems but years back, big companies used to produce a lot of artisans but they don’t do that anymore but it’s interesting that our students end up at those big companies,” said van Deventer.

What opportunities are available at Sol-Tech?

Van Deventer says when they started operating in 2007, their plan was to focus on the most critical and scarce skills.

“We are talking about diesel mechanics, auto electricians, electricians, welding including megatronics which is so scares at the moment that mining companies even take young people (it doesn’t matter if they had just qualified) among other things.”

Training problem in South Africa

“Universities are not the solution to our country’s problems because we are currently sitting with properly qualified graduates without jobs and I think there is a wrong stigma about artisans where in the past you would say that if I don’t do well at school, don’t worry I can become an artisan and that’ not true.

“To become an artisan these days, we prefer them to have matric, Matsh and Science but our entry level is at least a grade 11 and when they come here without having had Maths and Science, we do offer them a bridging course of between three and six months to get them on the level of at least grade 11 Maths and Science because part of the training here is almost a matric level,” said van Deventer.

Student Intake

Van Deventer says at any stage they have about 1000 students on campus but on their system, they are sitting with between 2000 and 2500 students.

Affordability

Van Deventer admits not all parents are in a position to can afford paying for the training of their children, saying if they don’t assist them, the children will end up nowhere.

“We assist about 25% parents with interest-free loans through another company of ours which is in the Solidarity movement.

“We also have another 30-40% of students whose parents can afford but still need to get a loan but still have the money to pay and we assist,” van Deventer said.

Sol-Tech’s race policy

“We give training in Afrikaans and it is important to note that we don’t do so to exclude anyone, in fact we give Afrikaans training to include everyone and as much as we encourage lessons to be conducted in Afrikaans, we encourage mother tongue language training.

“We also encourage other people to mother tongue language colleges and even politicians and everyone else agree with us but no one is doing anything,” he said.

Van Deventer says the study material is available in both Afrikaans and English including the tests.

“It is also important to note that there is no way we can teach students Afrikaans terminology which they don’t use in the industry for example if you talk about a certain part, we use the terminology that the industry use.

“In the 15 years of our existence, we have never had students coming to say we had a problem with being taught in Afrikaans and now we can’t work…you can either do the job or you can’t do the job and we believe it’s just better to be taught in your mother tongue language and research shows that difficult concepts are easier in your own language,” van Deventer said.

How Sol-Tech was established and how much it cost

“Some years back it was agreed that extra R10 would be added to the monthly membership fees of Solidarity and we used those fees to start Sol-Tech and we have to date spent R60 million on equipment but there was an increase to that fee about 10 years ago.

“It cost us R300 million to build Sol-Tech and that includes the hostels while the campus on its own was R200 million but the construction work on the hostels is currently underway but the sad part is that before Covid-19, the hostel would have cost us R100 million but the prices of building material went up but we are not stopping with the construction work,” said van Deventer.

Sol-Tech has since expanded its offering with the addition of Information Technology (IT).

The Citizen also spoke to some of the students at the college about their experiences.

Marciano September whose doing a diesel mechanic course says what motivated him to join the college is the privileges he was given as he did not do Mathematics at his previous school.

“I am enjoying doing my practicals here despite some of the negative stories we’ve heard about the college pertaining to race.

“My plans for the future is to start a small business as I have always wanted to be a mechanic my whole life,” the 21 year old September said.

Another student Rorisang Lehlahe who hails from Brits in the North West province says he doesn’t have any challenges when it comes to studying in Afrikaans as it is a language he learnt when he was young.

“The education at this place is second to none and I’ve been here for about eight months and I’m learning a lot about the electrical trade.

“I’m not sure as yet about my future plans but I came here with the hope of learning as much as I can, to secure my future,” Lehlahe who is studying to become an electrician.

Another electrician student Carliska Sprong says her grandfather was an artisan, something which motivated her, saying she has always wanted to work with her hands.

“I really want to be a wind turbine technician and I must admit that at first when I arrived here, it felt a bit intimidating studying and working in a male dominated environment but within no time, I settled down when my fellow male students made me feel welcome,” Sprong added.

A 23 year old Casper Pretorius who hails from a small town in Oudtshoorn, Western Cape studying millwright say it was a big adjustment for him to come to Sol-Tech but have since settled in.

“I also draw my inspiration from my dad whose an artisan too as he can fix anything and I have always looked up to him and because I want to work my hands, I decided Sol-Tech would be a good place for me to start building my future.

“I want to start my own business one day where I will also impart the knowledge I acquired from this college and make a difference in my community,” Pretorius added.