Cape Town - The Department of Higher Education has warned matric pupils who are writing their final examinations to be vigilant and not fall victim to bogus colleges.
The department said scores of young people were falling prey to unregistered colleges in South Africa.
In 2021, the department reported that it had identified 89 bogus colleges in South Africa.
Speaking to the SABC News, the Department of Higher Education’s director of registration Shaheeda Essack urged prospective students to verify authenticity of colleges with the department through their website, before applying.
They also needed to check with different SETAS and Quality Council For Trades & Occupations (QCTO), if the qualifications and short courses on offer, were valid and registered.
“The majority we used to encounter was that bogus colleges were in the city centres around the country.
“If you look at Braamfontein, it was lined up with a whole range of bogus colleges once and we did clean that up as well and what these guys do they will set up elsewhere.
“We monitor their movements and their modus operandi. We do have them on our radar and we wait for the evidence before we can go with the police to shut them down," Essack said.
Essack said they were also focused on shutting down the provision of the online illegal qualifications from these colleges and described it as huge and also difficult to track down.
She also said another issue that they are also dealing with is the issue of private colleges parading themselves as nursing and and police colleges.
Essack also urged prospective students to judge the college’s infrastructure, basic organisation, administration and the level of professionalism at every level.
“Students can go to Hello Peter and it has a lot of useful information on how different colleges perform and that’s a useful source of information.
“They need to be critical of literature or advertising and be able to differentiate fact from fiction,” said Essack.
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