WHY FAILING MATRIC ISN’T THE END OF THE WORLD

First of all, let me personally congratulate you on making it this far! Matric isn’t everything, it’s important to remember that. You’ve made it through (at least) twelve years of successful schooling to ultimately be here.

According to the South African Department of Education (in a press statement that can be found here), almost half of students who enrol for grade 2 fail to make it to their grade 12 examinations. Thus you’ve surpassed almost half of all learners by simply making it to your matric examinations!

So, CONGRATULATIONS!

As someone who has recently been disappointed by their matric results you need to start considering your options for 2016. Thus along with this blog post from 2015, you have these three main options to consider:

• Retake the grade 12 examination

You should first consider enrolling for the supplementary examinations which will take place early during 2016. If you feel that you will be well-enough prepared by then, you should definitely enrol for these exams, as it will mean that you receive your matric certificate earlier than all the other options. You will find more information about the supplementary examinations on the Department of Education’s website. Alternatively you can enrol at your local high school for the whole year. This will give you the opportunity to do a more in-depth study of your subjects, while also being thoroughly prepared for the examination in November. You can also enrol at a post-matric school/college that will allow you to do your studies part time, making time for a part-time job and other activities.

• Enter the job market

If re-enrolling for matric is not an option for you and you want to get started on your career, then this is a great alternative. Because you have no matric certificate or tertiary education, you’re almost guaranteed to start at the bottom in whatever career you wish to pursue. But with hard work and perseverance, you can reach the top too. While it might take you longer to get to the position you want than someone with a tertiary education, you won’t be spending all your time at school and will rather be building up a technical background and sufficient experience.

• Further your education

Now, let me tell you, contrary to what your parents, your educators, your friends might have been telling you throughout your life: YOU DO NOT NEED MATRIC TO FURTHER YOUR EDUCATION. Institutions, such as College SA, makes it easy for someone without matric to become qualified. These institutions believe that everyone should be given a second chance when it comes to improving themselves and building towards a successful future. This is why so many of their courses are readily available no matter what your skill level or qualification. Some are available as full-time studying courses. Others are available as distance learning courses, where you can study from home, or while you have a full-time career.

I hope that, after reading these options, you do realise that this one failure does not define you. Perseverance is what will ultimately make you as a person and set you on the right track.

No matter which direction you choose to pursue throughout 2016, I am sure that you will succeed in everything you set your mind to.

 

Liberate Yourself

 

Our Deputy President, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa made a speech at a youth dialogue that was hosted by the South African Youth Council. Mr Ramaphosa made some really interesting comments in his speech:

 

• Young people need to be educated and that they must be innovative in order to achieve economic freedom in their lifetime.

 

• It is up to young people  to take up all the opportunities in education and in business that are available to them.

 

You should seek economic freedom in your lifetime … Seek those opportunities so that you can be empowered.

We want people to be their own liberators.

 

These are some really powerful words. Really powerful.

 

He also said that young people should prioritise education as education is the only way to liberate themselves from the social ills of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

 

In South Africa, words such as ‘freedom’ and ‘liberation’ mean all sorts of things. We have a history full of amazing stories of fighting for freedom. We have so many heroes who died in the pursuit of freedom. In South Africa, we cannot take freedom for granted.

 

I think that most of us want to be ‘free’ – and, for most of us, we understand ‘freedom’ differently.

 

What does freedom mean to you?

Do you know what you need to do to become more free?

What have you done to liberate yourself?

 

 

I would not be working at College SA if I did not believe and know that education is essential to becoming more free. Education is NOT only for clever and rich people. Education is not just a nice-to-have. Education is a MUST HAVE.

 

At College SA we believe in giving people second / third / fourth chances at education. We believe in offering a variety of courses that will make a real difference in a person’s life.  We believe in guaranteeing our Students that we will support them every step of the way with their studies.

 

At College SA we want to help you with your educational dreams.

But … and this is very important, YOU must have a DREAM. YOU must have GOALS.

YOU must want to be FREE.

 

 

Do you want to be free? What does freedom mean to you? Have you done even just 1 thing today that shows, without a doubt, that you want to be free?

 

 

What is is interesting is that freedom can be scary. Because, being free means you have responsibilities. It means that you are in charge of making decisions for yourself and for your life. Being free often means that you must be a warrior in your own life. It is not always easy being free.

 

But, being free is what we should all aim for.

We are Growing

This week we have asked you on Facebook how we can improve our services to you as students. We have gotten quite a few replies to our request and I would like to take this opportunity to address them.

As a College, we wanted to hear firsthand what our students are struggling with or if there are any hiccups in our communication or service towards our students. First of all, thank you for the compliments that we received from you. But criticism is just as important as compliments, because how else would we have known where we should improve and where we could grow.

We are currently addressing everything that you mentioned and doing our best to improve where you feel that we have failed you. Please try to remember we are also just human and we make mistakes. But we will learn from them and work hard to give our students the best service possible!

College SA would like to apologize to any of our students that has had a bad experience with our service or your studies! Just hang in there, because we have a team working to improve on everything that you have mentioned.

Students of College SA, thank you for your continued support and for giving us the opportunity to grow! Hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Success Begins with You

Studying can do wonders. It can broaden your mind, open up many doors for you, and – in so doing – liberate you and make you self-sufficient.

Candice Young, a College SA student who studied towards her Diploma in Child Day Care, shares her success story with us.

She tells us how, since completing her Diploma, her employer has recognised and commended her great work with children – and she has even been given a raise in her salary!

Candice says of studying:

“It taught me things I didn’t know, and challenged me beyond what I thought I was capable of.”

Here is her story:

I highly recommend College SA. I chose to study the Child Day Care diploma. I was so worried doing a correspondence study. I thought I wouldn’t get the support and help that I needed. However, I was wrong.

Throughout my 18 months of studies, each tutor supported me so diligently, helped me with anything I wasn’t quite sure of, sent me motivational messages, really cared, and my ‘silly’ questions were more than welcome and answered. 

I just knew I wanted to get this diploma to better myself in the field of work I am in, and to one day have my own day care. It added knowledge to the experience I had, and putting these two things together has paid off quite well, and I know it will continue to.

It taught me things I didn’t know, and challenged me beyond what I thought I was capable of. It opened my eyes to the fact that I could one day run and begin my own day care – which is so exciting, and has been my motivation – the prize dangling before my eyes!

Since receiving my diploma, my work has been recognised more, I have had a raise and been commended by my employer for my work with the children. I am second in charge of running the day care which is of a good and decent size.

I thank College SA for its commitment to me as a student and as a person. I will remember those tutors that really went the extra mile with and for me! 

I have recommended College SA to friends wanting to pursue their studies and I will more than likely be studying with College SA in the future! 

Thank you College SA, and all the hardworking tutors, whom I had the pleasure of learning and growing with.

God bless!

Are you currently studying with us? Do you have an interesting or inspiring story that you would like to share? You can leave us a comment in the comment box below, and we will happily share it with the rest of our students.

Distance learning doesn’t have to be lonely

It seems to be a common misconception that studying via distance learning is lonely and isolating. The truth is that this doesn’t have to be the case. I am sure you are all curious as to what I am getting at. Okay, let me explain myself.

Yes, distance learning can be lonely and isolating – if you make a conscious choice to isolate yourself. However, it really does not have to be that way.

Firstly, pets make excellent “study buddies”. A dog or cat is a fantastic friend to keep you company while you are studying. Best of all, you can even talk out loud and explain the study material to them.

Okay, maybe that sounds a little bit weird, but I have done it – honestly! What’s more, it wasn’t even my own pets! I studied via distance learning, and when I was feeling lonely, I would coax my housemate’s cats into sitting with me.

Let’s move on to human company. When I first started studying, I shared a house with many other people.

A few of these people were also studying – however, they were studying completely different courses at completely different learning institutions. The problem with sharing a house with other students is that it can become very noisy. This is not always conducive to studying! So, my housemates and I decided to make a plan.

We created something called “quiet time” – I kid you not. We would all sit together and study our respective subjects. For that particular duration of time, we all sat in silence and studied.

After our quiet/study time, we went back to chatting away.

As young students, we were quite the party animals. Yet, we somehow all managed to make time for our studies by creating this “study buddy” programme. If a bunch of party animals could regularly study together, there is no reason why you can’t do the same.

Another technique that I used to avoid studying in isolation was to take my books with me to different places. I liked the idea of someone “being there”, even if that just meant someone sitting in the same room as me. The public library was actually one of my favourite places to study.

When you are studying via distance learning, you sometimes need to make use of your creativity. The truth is that distance learning never has to be lonely. It can be interactive and fun. It is all up to you!

Happy Days

Hi there Dear Readers,

Well today is Friday and I hope that most of you are looking forward to your weekend.

I am thrilled that today’s post has been written by another of our Marketing gems, Tania.

Here are Tania’s words. Enjoy the post …

 

“Time does not pass, it continues” 
― Marty Rubin

I have been struggling to concentrate or to even move a limb this past couple of days due to the heat. It is always better if you are able to go to the beach or sit at the pool while enjoying cold drinks with colourful straws and fruit.

But for some it is not always the case and we long for our young care-free days where our only concern was when we could go outside and play (even if it was scorching hot).

But this weather has made me think of how we wish our days away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On these awfully hot summer days, all we do is wish it was over. We wish it was winter and we long for the cold. However, as soon as it is winter and it rains day in and day out, we wish that away too and again we long for summer. I have come to notice this in more areas of my life…

While I was I student I took my “freedom” for granted and there was only a few weeks in a year that I could proudly say that I attended all my classes.

Now, as a working person, if I could go back I would tell my younger self to wake up for that 8 am class and attend that 4pm class on a Friday.

Because there will be a day that you are going to regret it and be angry with yourself and wish with all your heart that you attended all your classes or studied harder.

You have lost those days forever, opportunities to enrich yourself –  and you did that to sleep another hour or to watch one more episode of your favourite series.

The thing is, you could have taken an afternoon nap, or watched series over the weekend, but you didn’t.

You wished your student life away to become independent and earn your own money. But in the mean time, you lost precious opportunities while you sat there thinking about the future. Don’t get me wrong, it is good to plan for the future, but it is unhealthy if you dwell on it too much and forget that you are wasting time in the present.

 

It is the same thing we do every day when we want the day just to end because we cannot bear the heat. But what if that hot scorching day was the last day before a loved one will move far away?

Will you want to wish the day away then?

Or what if it was the last day you will see your child before they go off to boarding school?

It can even be something more serious, what if you are sitting next to a friend and you both are wishing the day away because it has been raining for days on end. And on your way home you are in a terrible car accident and you lose your dear friend?

If you knew that, would you have wished the day away?

The answer to all these questions will remain no…

 

“Free time is the most expensive time you have, because nobody pays for it but you. But that also makes it the most valuable time you have, as you alone stand to reap the profits from spending it wisely.” –  Jarod Kintz

 

What I am trying to say is that there is beauty in every day, no matter how hot or windy or cold. There are opportunities in every day and you may not ever get them back.

We should appreciate each day as if it is our last (and I know it is a cliché) but it is true in every single way. We never know what is going to happen.

So on those cold wintery days, curl up under a blanket, phone a friend, watch a movie, read a book, invite people over for dinner, play with your pet and tell the people around you that you love them.

As for the warm summer days with the unbearable heat, be grateful that you can experience sunshine and that you have access to water. We are privileged enough in South Africa to have running water and to be safe enough to let our children play outside.

There are countries that are at war and, if you had to walk outside in the sunshine in those countries, you might die from a bomb explosion or gun shooting.

Be thankful for each day, because each day is a gift.

Therefore, go today and enjoy the heat, because in a few month’s time you will miss it. After school, work or a long week, go home and enjoy the simple things about summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I would like to do today is walk around my town and truly see the beauty of the day. I am going to take photographs and write poems and try to capture the true worth of what I have been given.

I implore you to do something similar. You are blessed with every breath you take each new day.

Remember that and don’t wish it away!

“It’s being here now that’s important. There’s no past and there’s no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can’t relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don’t know if there is one.” – George Harrison

 

 

Thank you, Tania, for your inspiring and touching words. Let me end off today’s post with a picture that I find to be very inspirational: