ABSTRACT
This chapter is the first attempt to provide an evaluation of VET colleges that is defined by an information set that is distinctively different to the conventional sets of institutional efficiency, effectiveness and institutional responsivity. Instead, the chapter focuses on the capability dimensions and valued functionings that matter to college students. The chapter responds to the significant body of literature that has been largely negative about public vocational colleges, and hereby finds the following: (i) The ability to expand or contract learner achievements in capabilities that matter is only partly located within the college itself. It also lies partly within the broader South African education and training system and partly within the broader society. (ii) That if traditional measures of institutional efficiency and effectiveness were applied as the evaluation framework, then it is uncertain whether the college would be regarded as successful. However, by applying the framework of the capabilities that matter to students, a different perspective emerges. Located in issues of empowerment, confidence and the capability to aspire, a picture emerges of a college that has made a significant contribution to expanding capabilities that matter to students.
