School manager from Songe Social Change non-governmental organisation (NGO), Ntombentsha Gwayi, confirmed that they had visited CHB Senior Secondary School in Libode to host a career expo, with the aim of meeting rural school learners halfway.
She said that they had noticed that some of the students are not aware of the career choices.
“We are trying to engage with them, so that they can know there are so many choices they can choose from. We know that they are working hard, but we want to ensure that when they pass Grade 12 they know what they will do. They must not focus only on teaching and other stuff,” said Gwayi.
One of the teachers from CHB Senior Secondary School, Bongie Sahluko, said that this initiative would help their children a lot. She said that it is painful when the child has passed with a bachelor degree, and find that he/she has nowhere to go because she did not know what to do.
“We do encourage them to apply, but sometimes they take it for granted, not knowing that they will end up sitting at home if they did not apply,” said Sahluko.
She said that they thank this NGO because it is reinforcing what they always say as teachers. One of the learners, Asakhe Mpelane (17) from Wabane Senior Secondary School in Libode, said that this career expo helped her a lot because she wanted to be a paramedic and now she has got all the information she needed.
“In order to qualify you must have level 4 for maths, level 4 for physical science and life science. It is not a must that you get these levels, if you can get more than level 4, you will still qualify,” said Mpelane.
She said that they were told that they should have more choices so that if there are some obstacles in the first choice, the learner can follow another option instead.
Another learner, Nomvuyo Ngcaba from Dumezweni, said they were told that each person should be independent in life.
“We learnt that the person should focus in what she wants to be, and not please friends. In life we must know what we want and ensure that we are chasing our dreams,” said Ngcaba.
