Most parents probably still let out a small whimper when told by their child that they intend to pursue a career in film, television or radio. This is mainly because the industry has suffered from a negative perception that there is limited career potential and that there are too few positions for the number of […]

South Africa’s higher education pot is being stirred up with vigour and one of the newest things cooking is something that will emerge as the comprehensive institution. Comprehensive institutions are to be created through the merging of existing higher education facilities. They will offer both university- and technikon-type courses to students in a single institution. […]

Schools are increasingly under pressure to run as slick businesses in order to attract top-notch staff, operate according to good governance principles and, importantly, to stay in the red. This was one of the motivations behind the development of distance education institution, the Management College of Southern Africa (Mancosa), which opened its doors in Overport, […]

The disciplines of graphic, interior and fashion design are inherently rooted in the creative – but they need to be balanced with enough business and entrepreneurial savvy to be relevant in the context of a developing country. This, says Rick Edmonds, principal of Inscape Design Centre in Rosebank, Johannesburg, is the reason for the focus […]

Many assume that being trained in computers equals immediate job opportunities. But the slump in the Information Technology (IT) market that started with the non-event of Y2K and the global economic downturn that followed the 9/11 bombings in the United States have left the industry on shaky ground. The quick rise of dot.com and e-commerce […]

Under-resourced and flooded with applications for accreditation, the Higher Education Qualifications Council (HEQC) has its work cut out for it trying to weed out fly-by-night private higher education institutions (PHEIs). Based in Pretoria, the HEQC only has two permanent staff members who process the accreditation applications from all the PHEIs in South Africa. Four other […]

Teacher-training institutions are having to go the extra mile to attract young school leavers to the profession, and to entice practising teachers to update and develop their skills. And with the fast-changing sector they serve, it has also become imperative for them to ensure that student-teachers are given appropriate and flexible training that is adaptive […]

Holistic approaches to education are shedding their somewhat ‘new-age” tag and are being successfully incorporated into modern mainstream education systems. Willem van der Velden, administrative head of the Centre for Creative Education in Plumstead, Cape Town, says that the government’s outcome-based education system now reflects many of the principles central to the Waldorf Schools’ teaching […]

Boys Town is an organisation with over 40 years experience of caring for youngsters hellbent on bucking the system. Male schoolgoers with a history of behavioural problems are committed to their care by the courts, and it is there that they are given another chance to reach their potential. But in recognition of the widespread […]

A tin shack in the dusty forsakenness of a Freedom Park squatter camp, south of Johannesburg, is all that keeps Tshidi* (19) and her 11-year-old brother,Patrick*, from the streets. I arrive to interview her on a Friday and Tshidi and Patrick should be at school. Instead they are selling cigarettes to get a few rands […]