Free education and job search sites

In a bid to help address cost challenges associated with access to education and career websites, the Vodacom Foundation and its NXT LVL youth brand, has zero rated the charge for key basic education sites and career portals.

The interventions are an illustration of the mobile company’s core belief that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and mobile technology can be utilised to improve and advance learning, address skills development and help in finding employment.

The Vodacom e-School portal, was launched in January last year and provides curriculum-aligned content for Grade 4 to 12 pupils including daily lessons, videos, assignments in the form of quizzes and personalised progress reports. This is free for its customers.

There are already 150 000 pupils registered on the portal, which can be accessed by visiting www.vodacom.co.za/e-school from cellphones, tablets or laptops.

Executive head for Vodacom Foundation, Mthobeli Tengimfene said, “Many [pupils] in our country often do not have access to learning material such as textbooks, which makes excelling at school more difficult. The same applies to young graduates looking for employment as more and more job placements go online and the costs of data is a barrier.”

Other zero-rated sites include:

•  The Mobile Education Programme, which is a holistic approach to ensuring sustainable benefit to educators and pupils by providing internet connectivity, ICT equipment, content and teacher training through 81 ICT centres across the country

• In a bid to help address skills development and job creation within the ICT sector, the mobile services company, together with its partners Independent Development Trust and Cisco, embarked on a drive to help empower unemployed youth with ICT skills training.