A new college campus that will eventually accommodate up to 10,000 students is to be built in Cape Town, higher education minister Naledi Pandor announced on Saturday.

Cape Town mayor Dan Plato said Pandor's department had allocated R380m to build a new campus for False Bay College.

“Part of the funding will go towards purchasing the 6.5ha piece of land, which the city made available at a nominal amount. This will enable the bulk of the allocated funding to go towards the construction,” said Plato.

False Bay College acting principal Karin Hendricks said she hoped the campus would be ready to accept its first students by January 2022.

The technical and vocational educational and training (TVET) college already has a campus in Merrydale Road, Mitchells Plain, which offers courses in business, financial and public management, as well as educare.

But Plato said the new campus, on a mainly vacant site in Strandfontein bounded by Spine Road, Birkenhead Drive and Seafarer Drive, would “address a great need for the education and training of youth in the Mitchells Plain and Strandfontein areas and surrounds. It will serve as the first large-scale tertiary institution for the area.”

The mayor added: “The facility will offer tuition in the key sectors of tourism, film, information technology, call centre training, retail programmes, business studies, paralegal qualifications and the creative media.

“It will also have a cosmetology academy and the college will offer bridging programmes for youth who do not meet the minimum requirements for entry into technical and vocational education and training colleges.”

Plato called the new campus “a welcome display of collaborative governance as it sees the local, provincial and national governments working together for the empowerment of our residents, especially youth who are the future of our country”.

He added: “We believe that quality and responsive education and training is the most effective way of empowering people and preparing them for work. I look forward to seeing the doors of this world-class education facility open in the near future.”

Hendricks said Pandor's announcement marked the fulfilment of a long-held dream for the college, which had occupied temporary accommodation in Mitchells Plain for 14 years.

"This is huge for us and for the young people of the Cape Flats," said Hendricks, adding that around 5,000 students travelled out of Mitchells Plain daily to pursue their education, at great cost in terms of money and time.

She said the TVET model, which combines theoretical and practical instruction with workplace experience, would "connect them with critical skills to make them more work-ready".

False Bay College also has campuses in Muizenberg, Fish Hoek, Westlake and Khayelitsha.