Life Orientation Teacher Seminar
‘Post-school education and training opportunities, and workplace readiness’
On Saturday 25 May 2019, the Life Orientation General Education and Training (GET) Senior Curriculum Planner hosted a teacher seminar at the Fountains Hotel in Cape Town. The event was a joint venture between the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), the Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDAT) and the University of the Western Cape Institute of Post-school Studies (UWC-IPSS). This is the second year that this seminar has been hosted through this partnership.
The aim of the seminar was to provide Life Orientation teachers with information about ‘post-school education and training opportunities, and workplace readiness programmes’ available for their learners in Grade 9 through to Grade 12. The presentations by organisations were proof that no learner, in South Africa, with or without a matric certificate, should find themselves without a career option.
Four organisations, directly involved in training young people for job-placement, shared their area of work with the teachers as well as the opportunities avaliable for learners. These stakeholders included: OMNI HR Consulting, Discovery, WNS’s UAcademy and Imperial Technical Training Academy. Imperial brought along two young girls from Blikkiesdorp who have qualified as spray-painters at the company. Imperial provides on-site training for these young people who were straight out of high school. They spoke to the teachers about the learnership and the opportunity afforded to them. Never in their wildest dreams was being a spray-painter in their life script. Their stories were inspirational to the teachers.
Two Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETA) namely, the FoodBev SETA and the Wholesale and Retail SETA presented teachers with information on available learnerships, learner requirements as well as how these opportunities could be accessed. They also presented a list of the top scarce skills in their sectors.
The final presentation was done by EduConnect. EduConnet has partnered with the UWC-IPSS on a programme to get learners, teachers and subject advisors onto a portal where teachers are able access career awareness content that can be incorporated into their lesson plans. This portal can also be used to give lessons and set tasks for learners to complete online. Learners are able use the platform to complete tasks as well as source any information about career or study opportunities and apply. A teacher would be able to see which of their learners have submitted applications to which universities and a Subject Advisor would know by the press of a button which of their schools were active on the website.
Overall, the seminar was a huge success with teachers leaving the event more informed about opportunities that are available for learners at their schools. This information will help them offer comprehensive to learners and their parents about alternative career paths and opportunities.
