Faculty of Education Sciences tastes sweet success

The Faculty of Education Sciences at the North-West University’s Potchefstroom Campus has just received national accreditation from the South African Board of People Practitioners (SABPP) for its sustained and successful presentation of their Bachelor in Training and Development degree (BTD).

  Approximately ten years ago the planning and application to establish this degree within the faculty started. After the degree course was accredited by the South African Quality Authority (SAQA) in 2004, the development of the curriculum and study guides commenced in 2005 under the direction of Dr Johan van der Merwe. In 2006 they enrolled their first students, which grew from a meagre nine to far over a hundred entries this year. “It was a huge job, but we succeeded and can proudly say that we are now starting to reap the fruits. On top of it all, we received the SABPP accreditation, which adds so much more merit to this degree,” says Van der Merwe.
  This three-year degree course, of which Van der Merwe and Ms Helen Meyer are the lecturers, is presented to 153 students this year. The BTD is not an education-oriented course, but focuses on the training and development of training officials in the training industry and skills development. “Our students are training officials standing in the industry and the work place and who are responsible for training within their own work environments. By completing this course, the students obtain a further professional, occupation-oriented qualification. We develop various skills such as, amongst others, communication, facilitation, curriculum development, assessment, moderation, quality assurance, etc and we also focus on people-driven factors. The students also get exposure to modules such as, for example, Industrial Psychology, Industrial Sociology, etc.”
  The accreditation that the course received also has the advantage that students who obtained the degree are regarded as professional training practitioners. The NWU is still the only university in the country that presents this degree course. According to Van der Merwe, this year is already the third group of students that enrolled for their honour’s degrees in this course.
  Besides the fact that the faculty can boast with their SABPP accreditation, Dr Johan van der Merwe has also been accredited as a master practitioner in training and development. His colleague, Helen Meyer, received accreditation for a chartered practitioner.