False Bay College

Educational institutions are facing very different challenges than they did ten years ago. With the continuous improvement in technology, institutions need to be agile to keep up with the ever-changing demands and needs of the education sector. A modern, fit-for-purpose Student Information System/Service (SIS) should not only support the attainment of the College's strategic goals but also be flexible (configurable) enough to accommodate changing business models and support new or changing strategic objectives/direction.

2021 saw False Bay Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) College break new ground. We were the first TVET College in South Africa to implement Academia Student Information System (SIS) and go live for applications and registrations. It is an amazing accomplishment as all project meetings, workshops, and training were delivered remotely due to the outbreak of Covid-19. While this was no easy feat, it illustrates the pioneering journey that False Bay TVET College undertook to adopt a robust SIS and
replace its existing systems.

“We wanted a customizable solution as per the needs of our vocational & occupational programmes. Academia ERP was the system of choice as it provided us with rich functionalities and customization as per the College SIS requirements. We are very satisfied with the implementation and post-implementation services provided by Academia that helped us achieve automation and digital transformation”.

- Mark Cramer

Acting Deputy Principal, False Bay College, Muizenberg, South Africa

Institution Profile

False Bay TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) college contribute to the development of the workforce to respond to the growth of the economy. The college offers vocational or occupational courses in nature and prepares for a range of jobs, entrepreneurial opportunities, and further learning. All college programs are accredited by the relevant program accreditation bodies. False Bay TVET College, a leader in the public TVET sector has been rated as one of the top-performing TVET colleges in South Africa.

Key Challenges

Academia’s Solution

Disrupted Enquiry and Application Management

The institution struggled to manage a high volume of enquiries and applications remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

High-Volume Digital Application Processing

Academia enabled the generation and processing of over one hundred thousand applications seamlessly, even during the COVID-19 period.

Lack of Effective Communication

There was no centralized mechanism to communicate efficiently with students, faculty, and administrative stakeholders.

Centralized, Multi-Channel Stakeholder Communication

The platform facilitated timely communication through SMS, email, and mobile app notifications tailored to different stakeholder needs.

Limited Control Over Multi-Campus Operations

Managing multiple campuses, batches, and courses manually made coordination complex and error-prone.

Automated Multi-Campus and Multi-Program Management

Academia’s multicenter capability allowed a single student to remain active across multiple campuses, batches, and courses simultaneously.

Inability to Handle Large-Scale Student Data

The legacy system was not equipped to manage and process massive volumes of student data efficiently.

Large-Scale Legacy Data Migration

Approximately one million student records were successfully migrated from legacy systems, ensuring data continuity and accessibility.

Manual and Inefficient Service & Program Requests

Student service and program-related requests were handled manually, resulting in delays and administrative overhead.

Automated Service and Program Request Management

Students could raise requests for course changes, transfers, withdrawals, and other services through a fully digitized workflow.

Challenges in Generating Operational Reports

Creating reports for students and internal stakeholders required manual effort and consolidation from multiple sources.

On-Demand Operational Reporting

Institutions gained instant access to configurable reports covering admissions, fees, examinations, hostels, and other operations.

Compliance Concerns with EDLES Reporting

Continuous and comprehensive EDLES reporting to government authorities posed significant operational challenges.

Automated EDLES Compliance Reporting

Customized reports could be directly downloaded and submitted to DHET, eliminating manual consolidation efforts.

Complex and Recurring TVET MIS Reporting to DHET

Rigorous and frequent TVET MIS reports for DHET compliance were time-consuming and resource-intensive.

Streamlined TVET MIS Reporting for DHET

Academia automated recurring TVET MIS report generation, saving significant time and institutional resources.

Difficulties in Result Publishing from Government Formats

Converting government-issued result formats into publishable student results was cumbersome and inefficient.

Digitized Result Conversion and Publishing

Government result files were easily converted into digital formats, enabling quick, accurate, and hassle-free result publication.

Benefits

Easy enrollment & admission management
Chatbot that benefited students with rich conversational experience
Task management to generate minutes of meeting (MOM) & check details related to any task
Separate portal for lecturers to reduce the workload of admin & lecturers
Tracking of inward & outward courier services