www.vistech.co.za Recently, there has been a lot of back and forth in the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) regarding the name change of FET colleges to TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) colleges. While FET colleges included both public and private colleges, only public colleges are to become TVET colleges, while private colleges are simply going to be referred to as private colleges going forward. With this clear distinction being made between the two, the question many people might ask is: just what is the difference between public and private colleges? The Similarities First of all, one should look at whether these colleges are, in fact, all that different. The simple answer to this is that, despite the name changes, they really aren’t . The DHET’s official TVET (formerly FET) web page states: “Fundamentally the South African education system comprises three broad ...