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Staff Reporter
In a rapidly evolving and highly competitive job market, where skills and qualifications play a pivotal role in career progression, the issue of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is rightfully coming to the fore.
Many individuals across South Africa have worked diligently in various roles and industries, accumulating valuable knowledge and skills over many years. However, when they seek to climb the career ladder or transition to a new job, their hard-earned expertise often goes unrecognised due to their lack of relevant qualifications and without consideration of their real-life track record and achievements.
“Our country faces significant socio-economic challenges. Aspiring professionals, including those who have worked in entry-level and minimum-wage positions, find themselves at a crossroads. They possess practical skills, problem-solving abilities, customer service experience and industry-specific knowledge – all highly sought-after skills – but their lack of formal qualifications hinders their upward mobility.
“In this way, the gap between practical experience and formal recognition creates almost insurmountable barriers for career advancement,” explains Siyavuya Makubalo, Marketing Manager at Oxbridge Academy, a brand of ADvTECH, South Africa’s leading private education provider.
Upon receipt of a certificate of completion, students can articulate a qualification in their preferred field, with the RPL certificate serving as confirmation of their skills and knowledge. Its purpose is to bridge the gap between practical expertise and formal qualifications, allowing people to advance their qualifications and careers.
“This serves as a beacon of hope for those seeking career progression, who want to improve their prospects but were not able to do so before,” says Makubalo.
She says the RPL process provides a structured framework for assessing and validating an individual’s prior learning.
“It is an acknowledgement of the skills and knowledge you’ve collected through work and life experience, transferring them to a current training course’s requirements to gain entry to the specific training course you want to study.”
Upon receipt of a certificate of completion, students can articulate into a qualification in their preferred field, with the RPL certificate serving as confirmation of their skills and knowledge.
“Recognition of Prior Learning is a much-needed transformative process that acknowledges an individual’s existing expertise, regardless of whether it was gained through formal education, work experience, or self-directed learning. It provides a pathway for individuals to have their skills and knowledge assessed, validated and formally recognised.
“In addition to the formal recognition, students also gain confidence in their abilities. They recognise that their practical know-how matters and can be a stepping stone to greater opportunities. Armed with validated skills, individuals can apply for promotions, switch industries, study further or explore lateral moves.”
New app will tell SA potato farmers exactly when, where and how much to water
Staff Reporter
With unpredictable electricity, rainfall and municipal water supply, South African farmers may need faith like potatoes to manage crop irrigation.
But, scientific suggestions from their smartphones to prevent under or over-watering would also help.
University of Pretoria researchers say that data from satellite imagery and local weather stations have been “calibrated” for the first time in South Africa to inform irrigation strategies on potato farms in the western Free State. The data will be available as an app showing simple indicators of how much irrigation is needed on a particular day.
Once the technology is fully available to potato growers, it will be fairly easy to adapt it to other crops like maize and onions and for other farming regions.
“Farmers will be benefiting directly, and also the researchers and agronomists supporting the growers,” says Alex Mukiibi, a PhD candidate at UP’s Department of Plant and Soil Sciences.
While using remote sensing (satellite images) and weather data for more precise irrigation is not new, says Mukiibi, the technology had not been properly adapted for local soil conditions, local potato varieties and local weather patterns until now.
He explains that remote sensing data must be validated for any unique set of conditions, meaning that it must be checked against true measurements taken on the ground, so that farmers can trust it.
For the scientifically-minded, Mukiibi describes the technical details of this work in the journal Remote Sensing, alongside his supervisor at UP, Prof Martin Steyn, and Prof Angelinus Franke of the University of the Free State.
But for the rest of the country’s potato lovers, this advance means farmers will save on power and water costs, improving sustainability and ensuring that we can enjoy our chips and mash reasonably.
“If we go out for dinner, the team has to eat chips; they cannot choose any other starch,” jokes Steyn.
“I’ve been working in crop irrigation management and on potatoes for my whole life,” says Steyn. Potatoes are a drought-sensitive crop, and they are expensive to grow, so the risk is very high. We see the negative effects of water, pumping, and load shedding costs on farmers.”
Steyn says that in the 1970s and 1980s, only about 50% of potato growers irrigated their crops, whereas now it is closer to 85%.
However, most farmers are still not using the many tools and technologies already available to enable “smart farming” because they are expensive, difficult for non-experts to use, or unavailable in a single app.
Recognising this gap, researchers like Steyn, Mukiibi, and others are working with the industry to deliver remote sensing-based crop water-use data to farmers’ smart devices simply and quickly.
Potatoes SA funded this first “ground truthing” calibration step. Mukiibi and his technical assistants, Nozi Radebe and Stéfan Steenekamp, collected soil and crop data directly on the ground at specific farms in the western Free State.
Enter the 2023 SADC Secondary Schools Essay Competition
All secondary/high school-going students from all 16 Southern African Development Community (SADC) Member States were invited to take part in a competition for South African Development Community (SADC) learners.
The topic for the 2024 SADC Secondary School Essay competition is; “How can Human and Financial Capital drive Industrial Development in the SADC Region?”
The topic is derived from the theme of the 43rd Ordinary SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Luanda, Republic of Angola, on 17th August 2023, which is; “Human and Financial Capital: The Key Drivers for Sustainable Industrialisation in the SADC Region”.
The theme seeks to address two of the most critical enablers in supporting regional industrialisation: adequate human resources in terms of numbers and technical capacity within the context of climate change and the fourth Industrial Revolution and adequate financial resources to ensure more sustainable funding mechanisms.
The essay must contain a maximum of 1000 words and a minimum of 900 words in English, and a maximum of 1200 words and a minimum of 1100 words in French and Portuguese. Essays that do not comply with the permissible number of words will not be considered.
A complete word count must be provided at the end of the essay. Learners must provide references for their work where necessary; however, references do not contribute to the entry’s word count. The preferred format of citation is APA. To facilitate simple sequencing, each answer must be accompanied by the question at the top. Learners are cautioned against using the bullet point format for their work.
The deadline for submission of entries to the Department of Basic Education is 19 April 2024.
ALL entries must be typed and submitted electronically in Microsoft Word and hard copies. Entrants should sign and initial each page of the hard copy document to ensure that it has not been altered.
All essays entering the competition should be in one of the SADC working languages, i.e., English, Portuguese, or French. All submissions must contain full names, contact details, the name of the school, and the province.
Marking Guidelines:
The questions below are meant to guide entrants when responding to the question above. In answering the question above, secondary school learners should ensure that they address the questions listed below in their essays;
What is human and financial capital, and why is it important for industrial development? (20 points)
SADC continues undertaking its activities and initiatives, especially those encouraging industrialisation. How does access to financial resources impact the growth of industries in the SADC region? (20 points)
Pillar III on Social and Human Capital Development in the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) 2020-2030 is essential to industrialisation and regional integration and ensures human-centred, inclusive, and sustainable socio-economic development. Give examples of how the SADC region can invest in human resources to foster industrial growth. (20 points)
Social and human capital development is crucial for SADC to fulfil its goals of regional integration, economic growth, and citizen well-being. Discuss the role of human capital in promoting industrial development. (20 points)
Discuss any ideas or approaches to enhance the region’s industrial development without overreliance on International Cooperation Partners (ICPs) and donors’ contributions. (20 points).
INSIDE EDUCATION