Unisa Partners with Western Cape Government to Boost Career Planning and Employability
Chantal Adams, Acting Senior Student Counsellor for Unisa’s Western Cape Region, attended a Life Orientation Career Clubs stakeholder engagement on 17 July 2023. The Life Orientation (LO) team of the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) launched the Career Clubs programme as part of the province’s Growth for Jobs (G4J) Strategy.
Hosted by the WCED, in collaboration with the Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDAT), the event focused on the gap existing in schools where LO teachers are not able to provide learners with a full range of information pertaining to career options, post-school study options, the career landscape and possible career pathways. Learners in less-resourced schools and communities are less inclined to explore post-school study options because they do not know where to start. Career Clubs hopes to close this gap.
From left: Chantal Adams, Acting Senior Student Counsellor; a WCED representative; and Leslé Arendse, Convenor, PG Writers Circles, Western Cape
Adams attended another Career Clubs stakeholder engagement at the College of Cape Town late last year. The purpose of that engagement was to invite stakeholders across TVET colleges and universities to explore possibilities for collaboration to close identified gaps. This event further highlighted another gap, namely that of educators applying for job opportunities but not getting shortlisted, mainly because their CV-writing skills are inadequate.
Based on this observation, Adams liaised with the Senior Curriculum Planner: Life Orientation and Life Skills at the WCED, with an offer to collaborate with the region. It transpired that the needs were twofold: firstly to support learners with career planning and employability skills, and secondly, to support educators with a focus on CV-writing. A proposal of engagement was submitted to the WCED, outlining the strategic interventions that Unisa can offer both educators and learners.
Attendees working on their CVs
The first intervention for 2024 focused on educators. Counselling, in collaboration with Facilitation of Learning, hosted an on-campus event on 16 March 2024. The purpose of the event was to introduce educators to the latest CV-writing apps and tools they can use, as well as skills to improve their CV-writing. The workshop also introduced educators to resources that will improve their cover letter writing skills.
In total, 33 educators successfully completed the workshop and received certificates of attendance. The educators indicated in their formal feedback evaluation forms that they found the event useful and beneficial not only for themselves, but also for their learners, as they now had resources to share with them. Unisa hopes that this fruitful relationship will continue, and the Western Cape Region has recommended that the next workshop for educators focus on the importance of having a digital online career portfolio.