Eastern Cape college aims high with international skills partnership

Last week, a high-ranking delegation from the Walsall College in the Black County region of the UK arrived in Nelson Mandela Bay to review the implementation of the outcome of the British Council's Skills for Employability Programme partnership with EMC.

Manjeet Kumari-Lal, Head of International and Jayne Holt, Assistant Principal of Walsall College were joined by EMC delegates at the British Council International Conference that was held in Johannesburg on Friday, 18 July 2014 where the partnership was showcased.

Addressing demand for skills in a global economy and international workplace

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, 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 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 EMC, which obtained a 73% NCV certification in 2013 and achieved 874 distinctions in the National Certificate (Vocational) exams.