South African technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges and technical universities, currently grappling with new remote learning challenges, can harness technology to both meet immediate needs and position themselves to deliver the learning of the future.
This is according to Lesedi Dibakwane, enterprise account manager at HPE South Africa, who will participate in an HPE webinar on solutions for higher education on 14 July.
Dibakwane says the COVID-19 pandemic suspended technical and vocational education and training for tens of thousands of students across the country.
“While some universities were able to resume classes by offering virtual lectures, scores of TVET colleges did not have the resources or infrastructure to continue classes. The Department of Higher Education and Training has been rolling out its TVET connection project, but many are still challenged in implementing and using the tools to enable remote learning.”
This challenge is not limited to TVET colleges, he says. Many higher education institutions that were able to continue classes remotely still do not have the infrastructure necessary for the submission of assignments and management of grades.
“We are headed to a situation where tens of thousands of students will miss a whole year of education. And with no end in sight, this is a crisis situation requiring urgent intervention,” he says.
HPE has ramped up its programme to help higher education institutions effectively enable and manage remote learning, including advice, implementation support, and secure, cost effective tools such as VDI, access control and remote management solutions. “We are also looking at advisory services and consumption-based models to help TVET colleges roll out solutions without a major unbudgeted capital outlay,” says Dibakwane.
He notes that enabling advanced remote learning systems is far more than a solution ‘to plug the gap’ during the pandemic: “This is the future of education. By rolling out remote learning, higher education institutions will be able to improve the student experience and increase their capacity to accommodate the growing numbers of students seeking higher education.”
Lesedi Dibakwane will be among several experts addressing the webinar Transitioning to the new normal in higher education, to be presented by HPE and Aruba, in partnership with ITWeb, on 14 July.
For more information, and to reserve a space at this event, click here.
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