The subjects learners choose as their high school subjects are a stepping stone to their future careers, and to assist them in these choices the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) is launching Career Awareness Week.
The provincial education department is urging all schools to help learners make their subject choices during this week, from Monday 15 to Friday 19 October, of “preparing learners for the world of work”.
Says Education MEC Debbie Schäfer: “The subject decisions that young people make at school have a big impact on their lives – affecting both their further education, training and employment opportunities. Choosing a career is incredibly important, and it requires matching interests with skills, strengths and capabilities. Ensuring that our learners develop these skills and choose the right subjects for the careers that interest them, and for which they are suited, is of the utmost importance.”
The idea is to empower young people by aligning the right skills for building their careers or for starting their own businesses. The department also launched a new website to help learners choose their subjects, career paths and help them with bursary opportunities.
Learners on the West Coast also have something of an advantage, as the government is focusing specifically on opportunities in the oil and gas, tourism and agri-processing sector. The Saldanha Bay and surrounding areas are identified as a region for growth in these sectors by national government.
“I believe that through career guidance and awareness, we can teach our learners far more about what careers are available,” says Schäfer, “and also which ones provide better opportunities for employment or entrepreneurship.
“It is also vital that we concentrate on empowering our young people to become employers themselves, or to be able to run their own small business so they can provide for themselves and their families.”
Along with this push the WCED also launched an app as part of our Apprenticeship Game Changer called “Grades Match”.
This app helps high school learners connect with education and career opportunities. When registered learners will have to answer questions about their personality traits and career goals and the information will be analyses different career choices, qualification programmes, lists universities or EFT colleges will be offered to suit the learners profile. This information will assist learners would be able to search for funding opportunities related to qualification of choice.
Visit www.gradesmatch.co.za to access the app.
