WHY PARTNER WITH TEN?
A number of factors make TEN most suitable as implementation partner to organisations investing in the South African education system. These can be summarised as follows:
EXPERIENCE AND CONTEXTUAL UNDERSTANDING
TEN commenced delivery of programmes in 2009 and has focused programme delivery to support learners and teachers based in township and rural areas, not only ensuring that our programmes reach where the needs are the greatest, but also ensuring that our beneficiaries are 100% historically disadvantaged individuals.
This has positioned TEN to have full understanding of challenges faced by teachers and learners, still impacted by the legacy on a historical unjust education system, in rural areas in particular. This includes the lack of infrastructure, logistical challenges due to distances people need to travel in rural areas, limited job opportunities, retaining skills of qualified and experienced people, etc. TEN also understands the increased impact the language barrier presents to effective teaching and learning in rural areas. Being cognisant of such factors and being able to address these challenges, has positioned TEN as a specialist in turnaround of underperformance in rural schools.
TRACK RECORD
TEN’s track record of reach, funding partners and programme impact speaks for itself and bears testimony that our holistic and differentiated approach to the development of people, achieves the impact required.
PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
TEN programmes are customised to offer flexible solutions, based on the needs that exists in each community we work in.
● Programmes include effective stakeholder engagement, to increase participation and the possible impact of programmes.
● TEN assess the ‘as is’ situation before commencing with programme delivery to determine possible gaps and key success factors that may be missing or need to be addressed, for development to have the required impact.
● Based on the outcome of the situation assessment, strategies are developed to guide the implementation of the various dimensions of the programme, specifically to fill gaps identified. This includes identifying the missing foundation of soft skills to maximise the impact of curriculum development on the teachers, the teaching resources to be provided, the subject knowledge and teaching skills required, the support and mentoring dosages and mechanisms, setting specific performance targets, analysing the performance and determining the remedial strategies to follow.
● Our programmes are structured to provide beneficiaries with a safety net of regular face-to-face and remote contact, throughout the development process.
● TEN approaches development form a holistic perspective, ensuring empowered individuals who are ready to absorb the benefit of development.
● Barriers to effective learning and teaching are addressed, to maximise the impact of programmes.
● TEN’s Teacher Development Programmes are structured to combine development with close, multi-layered support and mentoring of beneficiaries, ensuring the effective implementation of knowledge and skills.
● TEN has a critical focus on the measurement of programme impact and tracks beneficiary participation and progress throughout programme delivery.
INNOVATION
TEN has successfully positioned itself as leader in the field of development and the turn-around of underperformance through an on-going focus on innovation. This includes:
● Differentiation of development and support based on the needs and ability of each teacher and learner.
TEN further developed differentiated improvement resources to specifically support and develop learners at risk of failing and learners with the potential to achieve high symbols, in appropriate ways. Activities are structured to escalate in level of difficulty, allowing for learners to master concepts from basic to more advanced, in each topic.
● Strategy for improvement. TEN developed an improvement strategy per topic, in each subject. This is based on a topic grid, setting out the prior knowledge required for a topic, the learnt knowledge and understanding required, how to integrate the topic with other topics, real-life application and typical ways in which the topic is examined.
● Multi-layered support levels. TEN programmes are structred to include various levels of face-to-face and remote development and support. This starts with on-site individual and group development and support to establish relationships and set in place effective communities, from where it exands to remote personal and group support via TEN’s helpline in each subject, video conferencing and intelligent messaging platforms. Throught this process, a base is created for effective peer development and support.
● Unique approach to development, as set out under Programme Structure above.
● Use of technology. TEN Introduces technology in a way that enhances teaching and learning and reduces the work load of teachers, while improving the quality of teaching delivered and ensuring a modern generation of learners remain engaged in an effective learning process.
Technology is integrated as vehicle to provide remote support and enables real time data on implementation and progress.
● Multimedia content. Various levels of digitalisation of content is used. This includes electronic versions of resources, multimedia-based teaching resources, video recordings of demo lessons that beneficiaries can access on any device.
● Creating communitiies. A balanced approach to the development of professional communities, incorporating both electronic and physical aspects, is followed. Effective communties ensure that ownership and accounatbility is shared and that expertise and resources can be exchanged and shared. This is reinforced through physical meetings, as well as virtual interaction/meetings (using online platforms) and a regular Newsletter.
● Track curriculum coverage & performance. Utilising mobile phone messaging technology with e-quizzes and e-assessments, coupled with learner/teacher incentives, TEN utilises a unique way to monitor learner performance more regularly (and cost-effectively), and indirectly, the curriculum coverage and progress at a point in time. This provides the programme (and our subject specialists) with an excellent window into where extra support is required and direct mentors.
● Alternative teaching strategies. TEN’s team employs alternative teaching strategies, including whole-brain learning and the use of technology in the development of beneficiaries.
COMMUNITY FOCUS
● Solutions are delivered to beneficiaries in their communities, minimising logistical challenges in delivery of programmes.
● Programmes are delivered to small groups, ensuring individual attention and support.
SUSTAINABILITY AS FOCUS
● TEN’s teacher development is structured to ensure sustainable value by building subject specialist capacity, transferring value and integrating this value into the education system.
● Sustainability is further enhanced by creating a culture of collaboration and setting in place effective peer development and support mechanisms.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
● Through its TEN Talent Support division and Tertiary Access Programme, TEN ensures that the value invested in learners at high school level translates into further qualifications after learners complete Grade 12, by supporting learners into tertiary studies, with funding in place to pay for studies.
ADDRESSING THE NEEDS THAT EXIST IN A DIRECT WAY
South Africa is experiencing a growing shortage of key skills, both as a result of an inadequate supply from the school system and the loss of skills due to emigration. Corporate organisations are experiencing the impact of the shortage of key skills.
● Even where organisations manage to find the required talent and qualifications, the reality is that the quality of such qualifications is not at a level that is required for an effective work force. This means that organisations still have to invest substantial amounts in training and development of people to get their skills to the required level.
● A further reality is that corporate organisations are all competing for the same limited skills pool, especially from historically disadvantaged backgrounds. This leads to high staff turnover as skilled people are attracted from one organisation to another, leaving it a challenge for organisations to retain quality staff.
● Organisations with rural needs for skills are finding it increasingly difficult to retain such skills, as individuals are lured to urban areas with a wider choice of employment and a different quality of life attracts them.
● Corporate organisations have relied on offering bursaries to attract and generate the required skills. This has proven to be ineffective for a number of reasons: Due to the poor quality of grade 12 qualifications, a high drop-out and failure rate occurs at tertiary level, leaving organisations not only losing the money invested in students, but also without the skills they were hoping to generate.
● Students are taking longer to qualify as they often need to first complete a bridging year to get them to first year academic level, or have to repeat academic years in the process of obtaining qualifications. All of this at the expense of sponsoring organisations.
● Even where bursary students complete their qualifications as expected, they often just complete their contract period with such organisations before being head-hunted by other organisations. This situation exists because of the shortage of skills in the labour force.
● Organisations relying on technical skills are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain sufficient numbers of qualified people. This is as result of very few organisations still investing in apprenticeship programmes, in particular in the technology industry.
● Poor education is one of the most significant contributors to poverty and unemployment that exist in communities, often around the operations of corporate organisations. This has wider impact on such communities, leaving organisations responsible for a whole range of social issues to address.
TEN’s programmes enable an independent focus on raising the standard of education by adding value to tuition offered to learners, developing the skills of teachers while at the same time building capacity in the region where programmes are being presented. This will over time, yield the required skills that corporate organisations require. This is one of the biggest motivating factors behind organisations investing CSI funding in programmes at school level, ensuring that they grow the skills pool from within their own communities.
TEN is in a position to contribute towards developing the required skills, assisting with increasing employment prospects of individuals, the alleviation of poverty and removing inequality. It further assists in creating increased competitiveness that will result as the professional skills pool increases, leading to the country as a whole becoming a more active role player in the international community