Specialist trains educators in basics of early childhood development
"I give them tasks in which they have to prepare lessons for a class as part of their training, so that when they complete the course, they will be ready to be educators."
LYDENBURG – A local training specialist, Erika Engelbrecht has a vision of giving educators a professional developmental edge.
This is through an entry-level qualification aimed at those who want to enter the field of education, training and development, specifically the subfield of early childhood development (ECD) offered at Nova College.
The ECD, NQF Level 4 certificate takes one to two years to complete, is accredited by the Skills Education Training Authority of South Africa (SETA) and attained through distance learning.
According to Engelbrecht, the founder of Nova College, she always had a passion for education. Before she opened the college she had taught for 13 years.
Engelbrecht says that she uses a practical learning approach in which her students learn how to prepare lessons and teaching aids, facilitate learning in an ECD environment, develop children’s fine motoring skills, develop classroom activities, and develop children’s spatial orientation and more.
“I give them tasks in which they have to prepare lessons for a class as part of their training, so that when they complete the course, they will be ready to be educators.”
“I make sure that everyone is fully equipped with all the information they will need when they go out to the real world. This includes training them on how to prepare a budget for a day care, if that is what they would like to do after completing their studies, and making sure they know how to work with parents,” she explained.
“This qualification will enable them to facilitate the all-round development of young children in a manner that is sensitive to culture and individual needs (including special needs), as well as to provide quality early childhood development services for children in a variety of contexts, including community-based services, ECD centres, at home and in institutions. I have meetings with the learners for ECD lessons only on weekends,”she said.
The college offers various other courses including grade 9 to12, ACE, Abet, Sacai, professional secretary, receptionist and computer courses.
