‘With learning you have the equipment – the tools – so that if you sink into a well, you are able to get out of it.’
Dr Thebe Medupe, astronomer and icon of the Learning Cape Festival

The Western Cape Provincial Department of Economic Development and Tourism, in collaboration with the Western Cape Education Department, will launch the third annual Learning Cape Festival on 12 August at 11h00 at the South African National Gallery.

‘Learning is the foundation on which we will build the economy of the Western Cape, and meet our commitments to social justice and empowerment,’ says Sedick Jappie, Learning Cape Festival Deputy Chairperson. ‘Our goal is to keep one step ahead of our changing economic and social world, and the way we are doing it is to look at the Western Cape’s growth industries and make sure that educators and learners are aware of how to slot into these opportunities.’

Premier Ebrahim Rasool, a committed life-long learner, will open the Festival, which this year involves business, organised labour, the SETAs and civil society as well as education and training providers.

Other speakers include Cameron Dugmore, MEC for Education; Lynne Brown, MEC for Economic Development and Tourism; and Learning Cape Festival Icons - Dr Thebe Medupe, astronomer, who appeared in the award-winning documentary "Cosmic Africa", Nomathemba Kontyo, 16 year old from Guguletu who was selected as one of 16 young people internationally for an internship at NASA and Prof George Ellis, Professor of applied mathematics at UCT, world leader in relativistic cosmology and winner of the 2004 Templeton Prize (awarded at Buckingham Palace in May).

The Festival will run from 12 August to 10 September with a talk show – Visions of a Learning Cape – facilitated by Prof Dennis Davis – together with visionaries in education who will contextualise and debate the notion of life-long learning and its benefits to the province and its people. Participants include international guests from UNESCO’s Adult Learners Week Conference. This will conclude the month’s activities.

Other events include skills-transfer workshops and cultural events, debates, demonstrations of new learning techniques and the Learning Fair (2–4 September) at the Oliver Tambo Centre in Khayelitsha where educators, trainers and service providers can experience what’s innovative in technology and teaching methodologies.

Debates at the Learning Fair address critical issues within formal and informal education and provide a key into how the vision of a "learning region" is being developed across the key sectors.

For further details, please visit http://www.learningcape.org

Or contact African Equations on: 461 5735/462 6229.

Penny Gaines at 082 554 0554

Silvana Dantu at 082 417 9770