The Eastcape Midlands College, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, embarked on an international partnership during 2013 to improve its certification rate and to increase employability of its students. The college’s vision is to obtain a 100% certification and retention rate and 100% placement of its students by 2016 that study at the college’s campuses in PE, Uitenhage, Grahamstown and Graaff-Reinet.
This week, a high-ranking delegation from the Walsall College in the Black County Region in United Kingdom arrived in Nelson Mandela Bay to review the implementation of the outcome of the British Council’s Skills for Employability Programme partnership with Eastcape Midlands College. Ms Manjeet Kumari-Lal, Head of International and Ms Jayne Holt, Assistant Principal of Walsall College will be joined by EMC delegates at the British Council International Conference to be held in Johannesburg on Friday, 18 July 2014 where the partnership will be showcased.
Skills for Employability, a British Council programme, addresses the demand for skills in a global economy and international workplace. The programme allows national educational and training systems to better respond to labour market demands and learner needs. It further focuses on building strong relationships with industry and employers, governments and training providers to empower students.
“It is notable that the vision of EMC is in line with what is being implemented at Walsall College. The partnership enhances the articulation of the out of the box thinking, which is an EMC trademark, to practical delivery. The benefits of this partnership will allow us to further develop and upskill our local labour and emergent human resources in technical and vocational positions in the Eastern Cape keeping best-practices of the global labour market in mind and in sight,” said Eastcape Midlands College Principal, Mr JJ Mbana.
We were delighted with the progress that has been made with the AaA (Accelerate and Advance) programme and learning company model. EMC have shown a real commitment to improving students’ employability skills. The in year impact of the AaA intervention pilot has resulted in an increase of 10% achievement on the NCV Level 4 mathematics said Jane Holt, Assistant Principal of Walsall College.
Mbana said the programme will further augment the offering and performance of Eastcape Midlands College, which obtained a 73% NCV certification in 2013 and achieved 874 distinctions in the National Certificate (Vocational) exams.
Alan Straton
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