AgriColleges international gets accredited
The Agriculture Sector Education Training Authority, AgriSeta, has granted online agriculture education platform, AgriColleges international, accreditation as an education and training provider in agriculture.
The accreditation allows AgriColleges international to offer an NQF Level 4 National Certificate in General Agriculture as well as in plant production. The business also intends to offer a variety of skills development short courses, which will become available during the course of 2018.
“This is an enormous step forward for our business and the culmination of many months of hard work by our dedicated team,” says AgriColleges international founder, Howard Blight. “It means that we have been given the green light to begin advertising for our courses, and that we will soon open our doors for applications, registrations, and enrolment.”
The organisation aims to offer a variety of short-courses in agriculture and related sectors. These courses are designed to upskill learners and those with prior experience in the relevant subject areas. These short-courses fall into the ACI system referred to as Learn-As-You-Earn.
The first five courses, available from March 2018, will cover various crop production topics and are based on the NQF 4 Plant Production National Certificate. They include courses in citrus, avocados, macadamias, table grapes and maize production. An additional 40 short courses are being designed for all the commercial crops being grown in South Africa. Each short course is sub-divided into 10 to 14 modules, which deal with the details of the production phase of each crop, from soil preparation, through to the marketing of the crop in question. These additional short courses will be systematically phased in and completed by 2020.
“We are delighted to have received accreditation as it means that matric students who wrote exams this year have the opportunity to continue their learning journey,” says Blight. “In a country with high unemployment like South Africa, cloud-based e-learning offers a more affordable way for our youth to equip themselves with the skills they need to become more employable.”
Applications to register for selected courses will be open in January 2018. For more, go to www.agricolleges.com.
