Continuing Education and Training Act, 2006 (Act No. 16 of 2006)

Assumed fee level: This is an indicator ranging in value from 0.00 to 1.00 that indicates the expected level of fee-charging for each programme on the register of nationally approved TVET College programmes. A value of 0.20 would indicate that the DHET expected 20% of the full cost of the programme to be covered through college fees. The assumed fee level must be informed by clear analysis of historical trends with respect to college fees and the education and training market in general

Assumed value of fee income: This is the expected monetary value of college fee income.

Certification Rate: Refers to the number of students who successfully completed qualification that acdemic year, expressed as a percentage of the number of candidates who were eligible to complete qualifications and wrote the examinations.

Formula funding of programmes: This is the system for funding the nationally approved TVET College programmes. These programmes consume the great bulk of public funding destined for TVET Colleges. The system works basically as follows: The DHET determines a funding rate (programme cost), in rand terms, describing the costs of delivering TVET College programmes.

Formula funding grid: This is a schema used to organise formula funding of programmes. The formula funding grid appears in Appendix A of this policy. The schema, which appears in a blank version and a version with dummy data, should be used to illustrate the funding policy contained in the paragraphs that follow. The same formula funding grid applies to all public TVET Colleges in the country. One formula funding grid, as presented in Appendix A, is designed to cover the formula-funded services of one institution during the course of one acadeniic year. Several versions of the grid should be used to cover several years in the planning cycle. The formula funding grid does not deal with the private income of colleges or public funding other than formula funding of programmes. The formula funding grid is a tool for the planning of public funded TVET services delivered by a college, plus a tool for determining how much formula funding of programmes a college should receive. Further details on how the formula funding grid should be used are provided from paragraph 34 onwards

Full-time equivalent students: Full-time equivalent (FTE) students are the number of individual students multiplied by the programme duration. The formula is as follows:

FTE students = Individual students x Programme duration in a year

The number of FTE students per programme is a key determinant of the funding that should flow to each programme that is offered by a college. The FTE calculations are based on subject enrolments. Take the example of a student who must enrol in 7 subjects for the NC(V). If the student enrols for only 4 of the 7 subjects, the student enrolment is equal to 4/7 FTEs or 0.57 FTEs.

Individual students: This is the number of actual students enrolled in each programme entered in the formula funding grid. The determination of these numbers constitutes a crucial part of the DHET-College planning process. Where a student is enrolling for a number of subjects less than the total required by the programme e.g. seven subjects for NC(V) programmes a value of 1/7 per subject will be applied.

Programme: This refers to a nationally approved programme and is contained in the national register of programmes (see paragraph 38) approved by the Minister in terms of section 43(1) of the Continuing Education Training (CET) Act, 2006 (Act No. 16 of 2006). The definition of programme used in the formula funding grid and applicable to TVET Colleges is specific to this policy and is not necessarily the equivalent of the NQF definition of a programme.