Projects - Africa - SSD

Sustainable Skills Development Project - Year 4 Update

2006/2007 will be the fourth year of a five-year Sustainable Skills Development (SSD) Project in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa managed by Walter Sisulu University (WSU) and Niagara College. This project is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and facilitated by the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC).

The SSD project is a unique initiative that builds strategic partnerships between education, government, industry, and communities with the intent to increase access to incomes and employment for previously disadvantaged groups and the currently unemployed. Through this project, WSU and NC are working together to foster an environment at WSU that is responsive to social and economic trends. In response to skills audits and needs-analyses conducted in 05/06, this year’s activities will focus on Learnership implementation at WSU, educational management, and the provision of informal learning opportunities such as in-community entrepreneurship training.

Activities planned for the 2006/2007 coming year include:

  • Entrepreneurship Pilot Program to enroll 15 aspiring entrepreneurs to be coached and mentored by WSU business students and professors.
  • Skills audits conducted to measure needs of learners
  • Learnership consultancy completed and new learnerships implemented at WSU
  • Provincial conference to bring together regional leaders in government, industry and education (September 2006)
  • Continued in-community tourism awareness workshops
  • Collaborative work-plan development workshops
  • Gender-specific skills development workshops
  • Educational management and administrative training at Niagara College
  • Financing for small business development investigated
  • Work within new structure of WSU to promote activities that accommodate community and regional partnerships and external/international linkages
  • Fair Trade Niagara (student run association at Niagara College) to work with Inxili/King Kei Crafters (women’s cooperative) to import Fair Trade products that can be used as socially responsible corporate gifts at Niagara College.

For more information, please contact our International Project Specialist at interns@niagaracollege.ca.