False Bay TVET College, a future-fit educational establishment situated in the Western Cape, embarked on a tender process for a world-class Student Information System. While teaching continues through a blended learning approach, applications for future intakes could not stop as the need for quality education remains in high demand.
When Covid-19 sunk in its clutches on a global scale, countries began locking down and economies came to a standstill. Schools, higher education institutions and companies that could, shifted to remote methods of learning, teaching, and working. Organisations who could not adapt, suffered, sometimes with fatal consequences.
False Bay TVET College, a future-fit educational establishment situated in the Western Cape, embarked on a tender process for a world-class Student Information System (SIS).
While teaching continues through a blended learning approach, applications for future intakes could not stop as the need for quality education remains in high demand.
According to Mark Cramer, Knowledge and Information Manager at False Bay TVET College, the Academia system, was the best fit for the specific needs and functional requirements of the College. The flexibility and customisation of the software were exactly what the College was searching for to streamline the administrative processes of the institution. “We shall implement fully-fledged online enquiry, application and registration processes which are currently all manual, paper-based processes,” explains Cramer. “This will make processes so much easier as the various portals will allow students, parents, academic staff and management to easily access the relevant information in real-time. It is the time-saving factor which we currently desperately need,” says Cramer.
Mark Cramer says that with implementation, all processes will be reviewed and customised according to the College and DHET standard operating procedures (SOPs) which means a reduction in manual processes and that all fields will be accessible in one place going forward. “All fields are customisable right down to individual need,” says Cramer.
The comprehensive Student Information System streamlines the complete student life cycle from enquiries to graduation as well as the administrative processes related to inventory, student residences and libraries. The solution is built on cutting- edge Java technology and is robust and scalable.
False Bay TVET College will fully integrate all processes from Enquiries to Alumni related matters, including the incorporation of all previous data systems, Cramer concludes.
A project in the works since 2016, the test site went live in June and by July 2020, the College was accepting online applications, in the midst of lockdown.
Trial by Fire. Eager to launch the SIS, through testing and immediate uptake by the public it becomes evident that while the new student information system met the College requirements, not all platforms supported the SIS. Challenges including outdated Search Engines and an unresponsive website, making mobile applications frustrating. Immediate mitigation plans were put into place to alleviate the challenges.
Since its launch in July till 01 December 2020, the SIS system has recorded 14 000 applications to study with False Bay TVET College