5 good reasons to get a further education

There are some obvious reasons why getting a further education is an excellent idea. As a society we tend to focus on the ones related to career advancement, but there are plenty of other benefits that we can identify.

It can be the basis of a lifelong career

If you have a passion for a subject and want to make it a career, this is where it all really starts. Secondary schooling will have equipped you with the basics; after that, everything becomes more specialised. So a tertiary education is the first step in your real career path.

You can begin this journey any time you like, although the sooner the better, as this will give you a longer career. For those who haven't been able to afford further education or who haven't known what they want to do with their lives until now, it's never too late to start in pursuit of your life's ambitions.

It can expand your career

If you have already qualified and started your career, this doesn't mean that there isn't room for further study. It's always important to remain current in your career and to keep developing personally. Further education can be the key to this. The more well-rounded your education, the richer your career will be.

For instance, if you have a marketing degree, you can do a further branding or digital media course, which will ensure that you are up to date in your field of interest, and give you an additional qualification that you can use to advance your career. Similarly, if you have a nursing qualification you can supplement it by doing a course in nutrition.

You might be surprised at the wide choice available for you to supplement and advance your career. In fact, many colleges and other further education providers have curricula known as "career courses". These are specifically designed to give you additional tertiary education after you have started your career. To illustrate, one of the main further education colleges in the country offers career courses ranging from human resources management and IT, to multimedia studies, hospitality, tourism and business administration.

It broadens your horizons

A tertiary education can expose you to new points of view in your chosen area of interest, different perspectives on life in general, and all kind of new ideas, concepts and opportunities.

This is particularly true if you come from a small town or community. Universities and colleges are melting pots of thoughts and ideas, giving you the opportunity to greatly expand your own world view.

Take every opportunity to do this. Not only will your life be forever enriched; you will also become a better-rounded, interesting person.

It teaches you to think more critically

This is possibly the most important thing that you should learn during your further studies. Any good course or lecturer will ensure that, while they are teaching you about a subject, they also teach you how to think about that subject. How to evaluate theories and ideas on the subject, to find their merits or their weaknesses.

It's a skill that will serve you well in all areas to which you need to apply your mind in life, not only in your studies and career. Internet technology has caused a huge increase in the amount of information to which we are exposed, and it's very important for each of us to have the ability to process and evaluate that information critically.

It lets you build networks

Whatever your interests, you're virtually guaranteed to find like-minded people at your place of study. This is especially true of large institutions with big campuses, like the major universities. So it's an excellent place to form new relationships around these interests, which can often last a lifetime.

Of course this networking isn't confined to hobbies and interests. Many of the people with whom you study will go on to take up the same career as you do, making the campus an ideal place to form solid relationships that will stand you in very good stead once you enter the workplace or start your own business.

It's good for you

Plenty of studies have shown that the more educated you are, the greater your life satisfaction and the better your general health. Other interesting benefits are that more educated people have also been shown to live longer, are more likely to vote and are more socially mobile.

All of which boils down to one thing: if you get the opportunity to improve your education, take it.

Let's start a conversation. Let me know what you think here or connect with me on Twitter (@EduloanSA)

Teaching the teachers about technology

 

I've spoken a lot right here about the importance of technology in education, and how it can help to facilitate learning and bring effective teaching to learners in the more remote areas. How it can be harnessed in a variety of ways to improve the quality and reach of education in South Africa. 

All this is very promising. However, if we are able to use technology appropriately and effectively in the process of educating our children, we first need to make sure that our teachers are thoroughly familiar and comfortable with the technologies and teaching methods themselves.

Training teachers to use technology

In order for teachers to deploy technology, they need training in it. What we often lose sight of when we think about all the potential that technology holds for education, is that there is still a significant human element involved. No matter what technology is used, someone still needs to do the actual teaching, as well as provide learners with the necessary support when using the technology. At least until we invent teacher robots.

So while we are already seeing the deployment of technology in South African classrooms, this has to be combined with comprehensive teacher training, not only in the use of the technology, but in how to teach learners to use it.

Education experts believe that there is a vast amount of teacher training that has to occur before we will be able to reap the full benefits of technology in the classroom.

A change in orientation

In many cases before we can get to the point of actually beginning teacher training in technology, we need to overcome existing hesitancies and attitudes, and sometimes even fear of technology. There is often a technophobic reaction among people who are not familiar with it. This is usually caused by a lack of previous exposure.

In South Africa we need to face the challenge of teachers themselves being completely unfamiliar with technology and having a resistance to implementing it in the classroom. This resistance isn't due to them being anti-technology; it's simply that they are unsure of it and don't feel comfortable using it. It's this orientation that first needs to be changed, so that teachers can fully embrace the technology that they will be using.

Creating relevance

The most fundamental thing to establish when training teachers in the use of technology is relevance. Much of the resistance to technology adoption comes from a lack of appreciation of its relevance to the day-to-day business of teaching. We need to assist teachers to grasp this relevance – to their subjects and to their teaching methods.

We need to clearly show teachers how technology can improve their teaching and create better learner performance. This can only be done using face-to-face training, where a human experience is combined with technology.

Once teachers fully appreciate the relevance of technology to their work, and the many ways in which it can help them, they will be in a much better position to employ technology in their classrooms.

Let's start a conversation. Let me know what you think here or connect with me on Twitter (@EduloanSA)

10 unusual careers you may not know about

Deciding what you want to do when you leave school can be difficult. Some people are lucky enough to have had certain ambitions from an early age, but most of us need to think quite hard about it.

When we're growing up we're generally told about the more "standard" careers that we could follow. We know that we can become school teachers or engineers, doctors or marketing professionals, accountants or web designers.

So we thought it would be fun to look at some of the more unusual careers out there. People are actually making a good living in these careers, and hopefully this list will help to spark some ideas for what you want to do with your own life.

Aquaculture

This is essentially farming in water. Aquaculture is about cultivating all kinds of fish, seafood and plants in set aside areas, which are then harvested for food. As the world's food resources become scarcer, careers like this are only going to become more in demand.

Living space management and design

While interior designers and architects have been around for a long time, growing population density is putting a lot of pressure on the space we have in which to live. People who specialise in designing and managing living areas to optimise the use of space and other resources are becoming increasingly sought after.

Video blogging

It may be true that the world has become very used to watching all kinds of people do all manner of things on YouTube, but if you pause for a moment to think about it, it's quite an unusual thing to do, compared to having a 9-5 job. There is also a very serious business side to it, with lots of advertising money to be made for those who can offer entertaining and valuable content.

3D printing designer

3D printing is set to change our world in many ways. For the first time in history, each of us will be able to take almost any material we want and create objects with it in our own homes, using a completely automated process. Like making coffee straight from the beans in a coffee machine, but making the mug at the same time. People who can design the computerised patterns that these printers use to create objects will find rewarding careers here.

Home server hosting

The entire Internet relies on servers. Typically these are owned and run by large companies – the Internet service providers we all know about. However, there is nothing stopping anyone from building a server system at home and offering website and application hosting. This is especially possible in the world of online games, like Minecraft, where many people have made a living hosting game servers.

Soil conservationist

Here's another career that is going to become more and more important as the world starts to run out of natural resources and land on which to cultivate the many crops we need for our survival and wellbeing. A soil conservationist's prime concern is the sustainable use of land.

Clinical ethicist

This is a speciality for those who are interested in medicine, and particularly the effect of medical advances on our society. Clinical ethicists deal with the ethical issues that advances like stem cell research and organ cloning raise, helping to inform and shape policies.

Sommelier

With South Africa being such a prolific wine-producing country, it's a great place for someone wanting to be a sommelier to learn. A sommelier is a wine expert, typically working in a top-class restaurant, managing its wine selection. This person also advises guests in top-class restaurants on how to pair the right wines with their food. Sommeliers can be very well paid and get to travel the world.

Toy creator

You only have to pop your head into a modern toy shop to understand just how many hundreds of different toys there are. Of course, someone has to design them all. This would suit someone with a flair for object design and a love of children.

Let's start a conversation. What unusual careers do you know of? List them here or connect with me on Twitter (@EduloanSA)

Inventing a career for yourself

Not everyone fits into an easy career niche. Fortunately, and often thanks to technology, it’s become easier to decide on something you want to do, and then identify or actually create a way of doing it as a career.

Let me give you my favourite example. A friend of mine was originally a copywriter in an ad agency. He moved into freelance copywriting and video scripting, but felt that he wasn’t really expressing himself as much as he really wanted to. His real passion was drawing.

A few years ago, he started using a handheld Palm device to draw caricatures of people, which he would print out and give to them. For free. From here he moved on to “painting” all kinds of things on his device, printing them and selling them at markets.

Then he got his breakthrough idea. Why not use digital technology, like a tablet, to illustrate people’s conference presentations while they are presenting them. These live illustrations would help to visualise the concepts and ideas for the audience. This idea was based on research that people retain information better if they can also see a visual representation of it. At the time, my friend was the only person in South Africa doing this. The career he has created for himself is now known as “visual facilitation”. He has clients that range from Sun International to Coca Cola.

 

The moral of the story – follow your passion

The world is an extremely big place, with a lot of things happening in it. There’s a very good chance that you will be able to find a career that completely satisfies your passion or your ambitions in life. Especially with the new opportunities that technology is opening up. It just takes a little ingenuity, a lot of effort and the willingness to not give up.

The reward is more than worth it. You can reasonably expect to spend more time working at your career than anything else you do in your life. So it makes so much sense that you do what you love. For some this will be an easy decision – they will have wanted to be lawyers or architects or doctors their whole lives. They’re lucky enough to have formal pathways towards these careers. But for those who choose more niche careers (for example, computer animation), these pathways have only recently come to exist, or don’t exist yet.

If you’re one of these people, once again, technology can help you to create your career.

The importance of self-learning

We live in an era where more information and knowledge is available to more people more easily than ever before in history. The Internet is truly a treasure trove in this respect.

With enough research it’s often possible to find all manner of resources that you can use to embark on the career you’re considering. Very importantly, there are online courses that can give you an informal, but structured education in the area you’ve chosen. You can sign up with distance learning organisations. Or you can join forums that contain people already working in the area. This can be an invaluable resource – it gives you access to first-hand experience you probably won’t be able to get in any other way.

 

Don’t give up

One last thing is worth mentioning. Life won’t always be easy and your career path might not be smooth. The important thing is to persevere. You’ll stumble a few times. There will be times when you want to throw in the towel. Don’t. You never know just how close you might be to achieving your career dream.

Let’s start a conversation. Let me know what you think here or connect with me on Twitter (@EduloanSA)

Top careers for the future

Many people who are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to study further after school have known for a while what careers they want to follow. Then there are those who are not yet quite sure. Still others have the luxury of being able to take a gap year in which to think about what they want to do with their lives.

For those who aren’t quite sure of their career choices, we’ve done some of the legwork for you and compiled a list of the best careers to pursue if you’re looking those that are flourishing, and that are about to become increasingly relevant to our society.

Like any list, this one is of course open to debate and adjustment, so let’s use it to start a conversation too.

As you might expect in this day and age, a lot of these careers are in the broad field of IT, which is easily understandable, given the modern world’s reliance on it. However, there are plenty that as are important, but overlooked.

Community services manager

Particularly in a country like ours, caring for communities, especially impoverished rural ones, is an important area of endeavour. It will remain so for a long time, given the scope of our challenges – and also given our need to keep these services running into the foreseeable future.

Computer systems analyst

Everything is being digitised in our modern society. It could be argued that we stand on the brink of yet another technology “revolution”, with the so-called “Internet of Things”. This means that many, more everyday items that we use are going to be interacting intelligently with global Internet networks. So we will need people who can build and programme them.

App developer

A short while ago mobile phone and device use surpassed laptop and desktop use as the way that African connects to the Internet. These smartphones are able to use more and more, increasingly sophisticated apps that we use in our everyday lives. Which creates massive demand for those who can create them. Some other good news for learners is that much of what you need to know to create apps can be learned on the Internet.

Nurse and paramedic

By the same token, some of the more traditional careers will remain just as important as they ever were. No matter how much we evolve in our technology, we will still need specialists like these to care for us when the unexpected happens.

Information security analyst

The more the world relies on technology and digital data, the more the demand will be for people who can make sure that all of it is secure. For those interested in a hard core IT career, this will be highly rewarding.

Health services manager

Health services at the most basic level are absolutely crucial to our population. The sheer number of people who need these services in far-flung places ensures that there will always be a need for those who can manage processes and people in this sector.

School teacher

Education is of course at the top of the agenda in any developing country like ours, and we could almost never have enough teachers. It will remain one of the most important careers in South Africa for many years to come.

Food scientist

Food is expected to become an endangered resource that will need to be carefully managed worldwide. Those specialising in helping to solve the world’s food problems will be in great demand.

Epidemiologist

Some of the most threatening scenarios for our planet, but particularly for Africa, is that of a disastrous disease outbreak. This career helps to prevent this, and also involves lot of research, community education and formulation of health policies. These are exceptionally necessary activities in Africa.

Natural energy specialist

As our planet faces environmental challenges we all know that energy provision is going to continue to be one of the single biggest problems that we have to solve. Those who choose careers that involve alternative energy sources have bright futures.

Cloud computing

Cloud computing is becoming the dominant technology and business model in modern enterprises. There are many different aspects to the Cloud, all of which present excellent career opportunities.

Let’s start a conversation. Let me know what you think here or connect with me on Twitter (@EduloanSA)

Inclusive education

South Africa is a country with a history of exclusion. It wouldn't be stretching the truth to say that exclusion is the basis on which the entire apartheid system was based. Which is why, in the post-1994 democratic South Africa, such an emphasis is placed on integrating the previously excluded, in a myriad ways.

Consequently one of the most important functions of education in this country is to equip previously excluded people with the skills and knowledge they need to live productive lives, with a full measure of self-worth, and to make meaningful contributions to their communities and the country as a whole.

One of the traditionally excluded and neglected communities is that of people with disabilities. Society in general poses serious challenges for such individuals and there are many ways in which they are still excluded. So it's very important for the education system to do its utmost to prepare and equip people with disabilities, in order that they too may make meaningful contributions to their communities and the country, and live fulfilled lives.

 

The concept of inclusive education

Inclusive education is the opposite of the previous approach to educating learners with disabilities. Previous thinking was that it was most beneficial to separate these learners from the general school population in order to provide them with specialised attention and assistance.

Inclusive education, however, is based on the concept of teaching those with and without disabilities in the same class. This idea is supported by research that indicates that there are significant positive effects of this approach for learners with disabilities.

Of course, it's not that simple – merely placing these learners in the same class is not enough. Positive outcomes are achieved with inclusive education when there is ongoing advocacy, planning, support and commitment.

 

The principles of inclusive education

We can identify three central principles in the inclusive education approach.

 The first principle is that all learners belong, and should be treated and made to feel that way. Inclusive education's simple approach is that all children are equally valuable – both intrinsically as human beings and in society – and they should have the same opportunities. The important point about inclusive education is that it focuses on learners with disabilities participating in everyday activities, as they would if they did not have these disabilities.

Of course this is done with support, because one has to be realistic about the challenges that many of these learners face. It's the social lessons that are the most meaningful in this context – learners with disabilities should be exposed to opportunities to make friendships and ways to have different types of memberships in society, as represented by their peer groups.

The second principle is that every child has a right to be included. Inclusive education proponents make it very clear that in the context of a society that places a priority on educating its youth, inclusive education is a right, not a privilege. Learners with disabilities should have the same access to the general education curriculum as those without disabilities have.

The third principle is that different people learn in different ways. This means that inclusive education places an emphasis on helping learners to learn and participate in ways that are meaningful to them. And it proposes exposing learners to as many different ways of learning as possible.

 

How does this affect South Africa?

In a country now dedicated to equality and access to education for all, inclusive education should be a standard part of the educational approach. Equality can only be said to have been achieved when we give those with disabilities the very same chances for success through education that others get.
Let's start a conversation.

Let me know what you think here or connect with me on Twitter (@EduloanSA)

Educating the girl child in South Africa

In many senses our country has come a long way in providing better education to more people. We see schools where there hadn't previously been any, and children of all races able to access any school they choose, provided they can afford it. This is a far cry from the conditions under the apartheid regime, where equal access to education was deliberately prevented.

However, there is one burning issue that we must still properly address in our efforts to provide quality education for all. This is the particular challenge of educating the girl child. On the surface it may appear to be a simple matter of giving girl children access to equal education. This ignores the underlying, systemic challenges that the girl child faces, both in life and, consequently, on her educational journey.

Girl child access to education

Looking north across Africa we see that the girl child generally enjoys less access to education than boys. Enrolment rates at primary schools are typically lower for girls, and their proportion continues to drop off as they move through secondary and tertiary education.

Fortunately, in South Africa things have become more equal. For instance, female enrolment at higher education institutions has steadily increased over the years, reaching parity with males in 2001.

This does not mean, however, that the plight of the girl child has improved much. Even though they have better access to education, the ability to take advantage of this right is sabotaged by a multitude of factors that have an impact on their lives as a whole. This has caused a situation where, despite virtually equal enrolment rates, girls have a much higher drop-out rate than boys.

The girl child's reality

The girl child is subjected to the worst results of historical injustice and current social prejudice, particularly in the rural areas of South Africa.

One of the most critical realities that she faces is the horrendous rate of violence and harassment against women and girls. This can have huge ramifications for the girl child, not only psychologically but also for her education. The psychological effects of harassment or rape are long lasting. These can in turn manifest in the classroom, including the inability to concentrate and social withdrawal. Then there is the high rate of teenage pregnancy, which is related to the sexual violence incidence. Many young girls are left with children that they have to raise, even though they themselves are mere children. This is a significant contributor to school drop-outs.

There are other factors that prevent the girl child from getting the most out of educational opportunities. Poverty is a serious obstacle, not only in the sense of being able to afford education, but in a much deeper way. With poverty generally comes some form of malnourishment. This prevents optimal development in a child, which can lead to later learning problems.

Of course it can truthfully be said that poverty affects boys too, but the unfortunate reality is that poverty has a far greater impact on women than on men. Girls are disproportionally affected by cultural and economic issues, and are also responsible for domestic duties from an early age.

HIV/AIDS has also had a severe impact on girl child education. There has been an increase in child-headed families, due to AIDS fatality rates among the previous generation – and the responsibility for looking after the family falls disproportionately to the girl child.

Other, perhaps more subtle, conditions contribute to the challenges that the girl child faces in education. Relatively simple issues to solve, like a lack of sufficient sanitary facilities, negatively affect the girl child's educational experience.

What to do for the girl child

This is admittedly not an easy problem to solve. It's clear that the challenge of educating the girl child is a societal one, requiring interventions and development in many diverse areas. We need to put in a concerted effort across all levels of society so that the girl child can start to derive the most out of her education.

In many ways, solving the issues that girl children face requires solving the issues that our country as a whole faces. However, as we do this, it's important to remember that the girl child faces additional challenges that need to be squarely addressed. In essence, the challenge of the girl child is also the challenge of all women in our society today.

Let's start a conversation. Let me know what you think here or connect with me on Twitter (@EduloanSA)