PICS: Solidarity’s private college a lesson in self-sufficiency

It took them just over a year from the day the first sod was turned on the multimillion-rand campus, and now trade union Solidarity’s Afrikaans-medium college is ready to open its doors to its first batch of 1800 students in February 2021.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, the Sol-Tech project is currently 40 days ahead of schedule, and remarkably 7% below budget after construction commenced in September 2019.

The currently operating college plans to move to the main campus in Monument Park during the festive period, and the first students will be received in February 2021, said Solidarity’s chief operations officer Dirk Hermann.

The college has been around for 13 years, with smaller campuses situated in Pretoria West and Kirkney. The college also currently has a waiting list of employers interested in employing Sol-Tech trained students.

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“The new campus will have about 1800 students in the system and will offer various short courses and skills programmes for thousands more students after hours,” Hermann said.

Most of the students or their parents are members of Solidarity with 60% of members being from Gauteng, and the remainder from different parts of the country.

The vocational training college offers training for those hoping to become electricians, millwrights, diesel mechanics, tractor mechanics, auto electricians, fitter and turners, toolmakers and welders. A section 26 red seal is currently the highest qualification offered.

Those behind Sol-Tech say they are also keen to share their model for communities who want to start similar projects, saying the R300 million construction project was funded by members who contributed a mere additional R10 to their membership fee over the past 15 years.

This funding initiative also contributed to the building of residences valued at R100 million, with the construction being undertaken by Solidarity’s new property company, Kanton Investments.

“The construction of Sol-Tech has shown that the community does not have to wait for the government to come up with solutions, as the power that comes from the small bits of a community put together can bring about major achievements.”

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While the college had previously received backlash for being exclusively Afrikaans, this decision was taken because members of the union were predominantly Afrikaans-speaking.

“The college’s medium of instruction is therefore Afrikaans. The choice of the language of instruction is also motivated by the fact that all other technical colleges in the country are exclusively English. Sol-Tech is thus helping to ensure a more inclusive language offer in South Africa. However, Sol-Tech will also offer a language bridging course, so that language does not have to be a factor that excludes,” Hermann said.

“Many of the students go back to the communities they come from to engage themselves in the development of their community. Around 21% of the students start their own businesses, and in so doing they are immediately creating jobs. As such, Sol-Tech is not just a major training project, but it is also an investment into relieving South Africa’s need to create jobs. It meets all the regulatory requirements, and its functions within the framework created by the Constitution,” said Hermann.

rorisangk@citizen.co.za

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