PUPILS at Clairwood Secondary School are carving a path to their futures, thanks to a Department of Basic Education programme which will see them matriculate with the necessary skills to start their own businesses.
Through the skills development project which began last year, the class of 2018 will finish school with specialised skills enabling them to immediately start work in the civil technologies field.
“We had a subject called civil technologies. In 2018 the civil technologies paper will change – the child will only answer the questions he has specialised in. So it is not just a generic civil technologies subject, it is about specialisation. We will be producing people with specialised skills going into the workplace.
It is an exciting project and what I like about it is the teachers are excited to implement it as well
When a child leaves grade 12, they will be a qualified welder, for example. He can go straight into business – open his own business even, because he is a qualified person because of the specialisation training he has had,” said deputy manager of curriculum, responsible for technical subjects, Leon Lambert.
The programme started with this year’s grade 10 class and will continue until their final year of school. Currently, there are 77 teachers from across the province receiving the necessary skills to train their pupils in construction and welding when they enter grade 11.
“Whatever they learn here, they will take back to their school and teach their pupils,” said Clairwood Secondary School principal, Yugan Naidoo, who was excited to host the programme.
On Thursday, 14 July, KZN MEC for Education, Mthandeni Dlungwane visited the school to congratulate the participants. He thanked them for helping to train their pupils, who will leave school with enhanced skills.
We look forward to the end of 2018 to produce pupils who are highly skilled
A Department of Education representative said the project is taking South Africa forward. Through a comparative study with First World countries, it was seen that SA is not producing enough people with technical skills hence the need for this project.
“It is an exciting project and what I like about it is the teachers are excited to implement it as well. We look forward to the end of 2018 to produce pupils who are highly skilled,” said Lambert.
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