North-West University CoLab empowers community radio presenters
The CoLab of the School of Communication at the North-West University (NWU) and the National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA) joined hands in 2019 and began a 12-month learnership programme to offer community radio presenters an NQF Level 5 qualification.
The two entities identified a need in community radio stations, namely, to help equip presenters with important hard and soft skills in radio and radio presenting so that they can develop and move from community radio stations to commercial radio stations.
The programme offers multiple modules accredited by the Media, Information and Communication Technologies Sector Education and Training Authority, including how to use the different types of software in the field, how to conduct outside broadcasts, do news reading, and how to write for radio, to name a few.
The NWU CoLab projects coordinator, Malcolm Sehoole, said that community radio presenters find it difficult to enter the commercial radio space, as most of them only have matric certificates and no other qualifications. It is therefore important to help them to bridge this divide.
“There is a big gap between community radio stations and commercial radio stations. The entry requirement for community radio stations is mostly only a matric certificate, and commercial radio stations require a varsity qualification. It is for this reason we felt that we should bridge the divide between the two by providing this qualification,” he said.
The NWU CoLab recruits presenters who are nominated by the management of their community stations to take part in the programme.
“The relationship with and the support we get from the local stations are significant. When we approached them with the idea, they were open to it. Some even call us frequently just to see if we need any assistance,” added Malcolm.
One of the presenters who is currently part of the learnership programme, Elizain McCarthy, said that being part of the programme has been nothing but an honour, and that she has learned a lot from it. She is happy that she has made new friends who share similar interests.
“I have learned so much that I did not know about radio since I joined the programme. Not only did I learn important skills, but I have also met incredible people who are in the same field as I am. I am grateful to my station management for nominating me to take part in this amazing opportunity,” she said.
She also added that by the end of this programme she would like to say that she has done all that she can for her radio career.
“We spend most of our time in life involved in our careers, and by the end of this programme I know I will say that I took advantage of this opportunity – from learning how to conduct interviews and how to edit to what goes into scriptwriting and the different roles that are involved in radio,” she added.
The NWU CoLab also focuses on other community development projects, but radio programming is the one of which they are the proudest. The entity aims to continue to provide community presenters will all the important skills in radio production.