Pilot project offers learners an opportunity to obtain accredited certificate | Western Cape Education Department
Pilot project offers learners an opportunity to obtain accredited certificate

Pilot project offers learners an opportunity to obtain accredited certificate

10 July 2019

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) and Genesis CITI (Centre Operator of the I-CAN Centre), a social enterprise, have launched a pilot project through which Grade 11 Accounting learners and teachers can obtain an internationally recognised certification in financial technology.

Masterskill and Certiport (international) funded the online learning platform subscription and exam vouchers of the pilot project.

The financial technology qualification is in partnership with Intuit Quickbooks. At the end of the training, the learners will write an international exam.  According to the FASSET SETA, the international certificate in Quickbooks is equivalent to 13 SAQA credits. Nine schools from various districts located within the Cape Town area are participating in the five month project which will end in September 2019. As a blended learning approach, learners can access content online, after facilitation is offered in class at the I-CAN Centre. The project also includes teacher training in Quickbooks, which aims to concurrently empower teachers to understand industry endorsements in the space of financial technology. Both teachers and learners will obtain an international certificate in Intuit Quickbooks.

The project will allow learners to combine Accounting and Technology to be more effective and efficient in the classroom and in the world of work. An opportunity exists for young people to become potential financial technology (fintech) entrepreneurs.

Llewellyn Scholtz, CEO of Genesis CITI & Centre Manager of the I-CAN Centre, stated that “integrating digital certification into the current CAPS curriculum in the FET band will enhance student opportunity to enter the workplace after matric and simultaneously address the youth unemployment challenge. The learners participating in the program have shown great excitement and interest and commitment as they see the value of the initiative (pilot project).”

The WCED, in collaboration with Genesis CITI (I-CAN Centre), is also targeting a number of other subjects for learners to gain accredited certificates as they progress from Grade 10 to 12.