SERC Host South African College Principals

SERC welcomed nine South African college principals to the college’s Bangor Campus this month for a study visit supported by the British Council’s Going Global Partnership programme.

The visit marked phase II of a project which commenced in January 2021 when the College was funded to support the Department for Higher Education and Training (DHET) South Africa to develop a quality assurance framework known as a to support colleges in the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector in South Africa.

Elaine McKeown, Senior International Development Manager, SERC, said, “Phase II focusses on piloting the Maturity Model with 18 colleges drawn from across South Africa who are all at different stages of maturity.   It will test the model, build organisational capacity, and support the roll out of the final Maturity Model to the 50-college network across South Africa.”

She added, “During their study visit the principals heard from SERC Senior Management, the College’s Governing Body and representatives from the Department for the Economy and the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) to gain an understanding of how quality assurance is applied in practice - from policy, through governance and embedded across all SERC departments - and what data is collected, analysed and used to inform continuous improvement.”             

Elaine concluded, “We are looking forward to building on the links established through the projects and to developing opportunities for interaction and collaboration in the future.”