Boston City Campus’ relationship with Alexandra’s Maimane Alfred Phiri (Map) Games has paved the way for the fulfilment of a long-standing dream to develop much-needed skills in one of the country’s poorest urban nodes.
The ‘blossoming relationship’, as described by college principal Jerome van der Merwe in an exclusive interview with Alex News, started in 2007 when former Ajax Cape Town and Bafana Bafana star midfielder Maimane Phiri approached the college with a view to get it on board the Map Games.
“Our relationship with the Map Games [was not] just… the provision and awarding of medals and trophies to the participating youngsters and their teams, but involved much more than that,” said Van der Merwe.
“We initially held varsity awareness campaigns on courses we offer and we have since upgraded that to Career Awareness Days where we vigorously engage the youth and the schools in Alex.”
Every year, Boston awards between 10 and 15 bursaries to students from Alex under the Map Games project. This is over and above other students who apply on their own to come to the college, and upon a needs assessment, are also offered bursaries.
Annually the college spends well over R150 000 on bursaries for Alex students only.
Van der Merewe said the choice of Map students was left to the games organisers to hand-pick young community leaders or those with the potential to play a meaningful role in their community after the completion of their studies at the college.
“We specifically use this criteria in order to unearth the future leaders of this community so we can invest in them with an understanding that they, in turn, will transfer their knowledge and skills… to benefit their community. The numbers of the intake depend entirely on what the games organisers can provide,” said Van der Merwe.
Once the potential students have been identified by the games organisers, Van der Merwe said the candidates are then taken through a rigorous assessment process which includes an online career campus assessment that identifies the talent opportunity for the student.
A career counselling session follows the assessment, after which the candidates are then guided through the murky waters of choosing a career. All this is done for free with the Map Games students, but under normal circumstances they would cost in the region of R500.
“We have an unwavering commitment to the development of the youth in Alex,” Van der Merwe added.
