South Africa’s leading private education provider, ADvTECH Group Ltd, is leading the way in the country’s education sector through future-focused investment by way of its double-pronged strategy with a focus on both the social element of developing global citizen leaders and environmental sustainability.
“At ADvTECH, we are deeply aware of our responsibility, as an employer and educational organisation facilitating the development of tens of thousands of young people across the continent, to put in place programmes and measures to ensure a positive future for our communities and society at large,” says Shevon Lurie, ADvTECH Academic Director.
As part of this commitment, ADvTECH have invested in its Respect Diversity and Inclusivity (RDI) framework and programme that has been embedded in its schools over the past three years. The Group is now taking this a step further by including environmentally focused content and topics as a value-add for students within the Schools Division. It has also focused on raising awareness to imprint the impact of environmentally solution-based thinking for future generations.
Within the Tertiary Division, ADvTECH has developed meaningful engagement through community engagement and citizenship-focused programmes. The programmes focus on enhancing the triage of learning and teaching, research and corporate social engagement. This, amongst other strategic objectives, will support its journey on the road to attaining University status.
In terms of curricula, ADvTECH has ensured that future-focused teaching and learning is a central pillar of its educational offering, by its rollout of a nationwide RDI programme.
“ADvTECH aims to build schools that embrace Respect, Diversity and Inclusion to make sure every student feels welcome and has a sense of belonging, to enable them to thrive in an uncertain world. We have a responsibility to our students, teachers, lecturers and parents that our students will thrive beyond the world of work,” says Lurie.
“We align the RDI curriculum to global competencies, based on real-life situations and scenarios to prepare students for situations they may face at a school or in the world beyond school.”
Lurie says ADvTECH recognises the importance of imparting the essential global competencies required for students’ engagement in their lives beyond school and university, and a world that looks very different to the one that existed less than a generation ago.
“Developing global citizens within diverse environments is essential for success now and into the future. Our students need to become thinkers and innovators to design the future of work and not just work in it. We continue to ensure this is an integral part of our work.”
Lurie says ADvTECH’s Global Citizenship programme recognises that individuals are not actors affecting isolated societies and contexts, but rather that they are members of multiple, diverse local and broader networks and that one’s responsibility extends beyond one’s immediate environment.
“With Academic Excellence as our North Star in all our endeavours, we are also developing a new vision of what it means to make a significantly positive impact on what the future might look like,” she says.
