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13 December 2022 Media Release: GRDM embraces Occupational Based Learning

Media Release: GRDM embraces Occupational Based Learning

For Immediate Release
13 December 2021

The Public Service Sector Education and Training Authority (PSETA), the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and various Municipalities in the Garden Route have partnered to implement an occupationally based course for Public Office Administrators.

An Occupational Certificate is a combination of theory and on-the-job learning that is delivered in an integrated manner to give a person knowledge and practical skills too, rather than only a theoretical background. This means that students will acquire the work experience needed to enter the job market far earlier. Once enrolled, most of the learning will take place at a workplace and not at an educational institution.

These students are learning in the real world for the real world.

Occupational qualifications and certificates fall under the control of the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO); one of three (3) Quality Councils in South Africa.

 “The vision of the QCTO is to qualify a skilled and capable workforce.”

These occupational qualifications are destined to become the new way of learning in South Africa as the country moves towards a more demand-led system that develops young people with the skills needed in the labour market.

As aspiring Public Office Administrators, those enrolling for this CPUT Occupational Certificate, learn core skills such as managing, organising, and analysing the effects of government policies and using business and statistical tools to solve public sector challenges in an ethical way. Added to this, learners will also learn skills in planning, organising, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting.

The eight (8) Batho Pele principles of “people first” guide the implementation of public service delivery and is core to the values taught during this course. The duration of the certificate is over a period of six (6) months and students from various towns in the Garden Route to take part in it. Once selected, each student is placed at a municipality within their hometown and given tools of the trade such as a laptop and data bundles.

An example of this is the two learners who work with the rest of the Garden Route Skills Mecca Team. Both assist with skills development processes across the country, whilst getting to know all the sections and their main functions within GRDM. They work 40 hours a week and report to a supervisor who mentors them under strict supervision and signs their work experience records (logbooks). A percentage of the marks scored during this period counts towards their final marks.

The outcome of the course is to ensure that each learner is qualified and fit to be employed by the public sector with the newly acquired skillsets and valuable work experience they gained during the time.

Feature image caption: Anelisa Myeki (left) and Trishke Roodman (right), are two of the current CPUT students working with other Garden Route Skills Mecca stakeholders.

ENDS

Information supplied: Anelisa Myeki and Trishke Roodman