BOLAND COLLEGE AND NUFFIC PARTNERSHIP
“Boland College, Worcester Campus, was proud to play host to Mr Carl Jaspers from the Netherlands, on Thursday, 24 June 2021. Mr Jaspers is one of our major Nuffic Partners and together with the University of Stellenbosch, met to discuss further developments of the Agricultural Program at Worcester Campus that will include the erecting of a Greenhouse at the Mini-Farm on the campus. Representing Boland College was, Mr Ebrahim Peters (acting Principal), Ms Salma Emjedi (acting VP: Academics), Mr David Cronje (Campus Manager) and Mr Vincent Uys (Programme Manager: Farming/ Project Manager).”
Boland College is proud to announce the partnership with Nuffic and our Farming Management Faculty. It is a training initiative that address the core mandates of the college:
- To provide quality training in response to education and skills development needs.
- Boland College’s main purpose is to prepare students for the workplace or self-employment in addition to reach out to the small holder and emerging farmer community.
FIVE KEY AREAS ADDRESSED THROUGH PARTNERSHIP:
- developing the occupational standard,
- matching with industry skills-needs,
- strengthening the dual system and apprenticeship approach,
- providing an inclusive gender, youth & marginalised groups focus and practice,
- and to establish practical support structures.
BENEFITS TO COLLEGE
Educational: The training of staff in relation to improved teaching and learning methodology and how to develop and maintain relationships with industry and other stakeholders will contribute towards sustained efforts and results.
Institutional: The improved programmes offered will better serve the needs of related industries. This will improve student numbers, student success and uptake and direct industry support.
Technical: Technical improvements (horticulture technology, blended learning) will drive down costs of presentation of and participation in these programmes, thereby improving sustainability.
Financial: Improved student numbers and success and direct support from stakeholders will have a lasting effect on financial sustainability and continuous development of the programmes.
The 2 NUFFIC projects we have are:
1. The OKP (Orange Knowledge Project) is with 5 other colleges including Elsenburg.
The focus of this project is smart agriculture. The investment in the farming/agriculture programme is in:
- Setting up a technology based LMS and providing computers/laptops compatible for online learning
- Developing appropriate learning material to update certain sections/modules of the Plant and Production qualification
- Funding the supply and erection of a greenhouse (cost of Greenhouse R550 000)
- Training staff the use of the LMS (Moodle) and blended learning methodologies
2. For the Tailor-Made Training (TMT), Boland is the lead funding requester with Elsenburg being the secondary whereby funding is provided for:
- The development of a Triple Helix platform where industry, the Boland/SUWI and the SMME’s will work closely together
- A selected group of lecturers and staff will be intensively trained on practical aspects in production and processing.
- Technical assistance (TA) of Boland and Elsenburg College in on-line learning/blended learning development and implementation.
- Field visits (research stations of seed companies, local supermarkets, etc.), as part of the training of trainers
- Workshops with local experts where companies will be involved during the training blocks as guest speakers will share best.
We are very excited to see this project develop!