Education Facilitators, a privately held company in South Africa, was a holding and operating company in the education management industry that consisted of three trading divisions, one in professional services and two college brands that operated throughout southern and central Africa from its founding in 1994 to its closure in 2005.
The two Colleges operated as distance learning institutions and offered programs for formal diplomas, degrees and postgraduate qualifications to adults studying part-time in the fields of teacher education, business administration and policing. Education Facilitators had agreements with various higher education institutions including the University of Port Elizabeth (name has changed to the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University) and the Technikon Pretoria (name has changed to the Tswane University of Technology), which provided for the offering of their qualifications on the group's distance learning infrastructure. In addition to the above, Education Facilitators also obtained recognition from various education authorities namely, the Department of Education in South Africa, the Ministry of Education in Zambia, the SERTEC (Certification Council for Technikon Education) in South Africa, and its Colleges was accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the (DETC) Distance Education and Training Council in Washington DC, USA. This enabled the group to develop their own certificate, diploma and degree qualifications, such as Associate, Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Business Administration programs. At its peak, the group had approximately 28,000 registered students throughout southern and central Africa, awarded more than 20,000 certificates, diplomas and degrees and employed 250 plus full and part-time employees.
Business Overview of Education Facilitators
Education Facilitators was established in 1994 after a buy-out of the shareholders in Norite Education and Training Company. Initially, Education Facilitators offered education programs through distance learning for the upgrading of unqualified and under qualified in-service teachers, which was based on the curriculum and syllabi of the teacher training programs offered by the DET (the former Department of Education and Training) at Colleges of Education throughout South Africa. Education Facilitators had its Head Office in Johannesburg and was registered by order of the court in terms of the Higher Education Act, 1997 (Act No 101 of 1997).
During 1996 Education Facilitators entered into agreements with the University of Port Elizabeth (name has changed to the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University) and the Technikon Pretoria (name has changed to the Tswane University of Technology). The programs offered by the two Colleges in collaboration with these two institutions through distance learning were examined and certified by these institutions. In addition, the programs offered by the Colleges for Technikon qualifications, were examined and inspected by the SERTEC (Certification Council for Technikon Education), which was a statutory body. Certification by these examining bodies meant that all instructional programmes complied with the norms and standards of education prescribed by the SERTEC and the Department of Education. All certificates issued by the former Technikon Pretoria to students of the Colleges were therefore issued in conjunction with SERTEC. Furthermore, all certificates awarded were recognised externally for employment, promotion and further education purposes.
The increase in student numbers compelled the operating company of the Colleges to establish a Professional Services division. Since 1999 the professional services division was gradually upgraded from a position where personnel and student support was dealt with by an integrated HR, IR, Finance, ICT and logistics back office with a clearly defined value chain and service-level agreements.
Very little changes occurred in the marketing procedures of the Colleges. Advertisements were placed in selected magazines and newspapers and student advisors travelled from region to region to counsel and register new students. Thereafter, the Professional Services division dealt with telephone enquiries, as well as applications that were received via either traditional or electronic methods.
The group's commitment to responding positively to the education needs of the peoples of Africa, and to provide quality programs and excellent service in the fields of education, business administration and policing that assisted learners to develop the necessary skills and competency to enhance their careers were evident in the growing numbers of successful graduates. The Colleges also acknowledged that it had a positive role to play in enhancing the establishment and maintenance of a prosperous and self-sufficient democratic society in the countries that it operated in.
Brief History of Education Facilitators
1990 The Norite Education and Training Company started in Johannesburg with the development of distance learning programmes from the curriculum and syllabi of the Colleges of Education that the DET. Its Chief Education Officer, Dr Mocke, furnished the company with information to develop programs for upgrading of teachers’ qualifications through distance learning.
1991 Teachers in the former Ciskei region enrolled for its Diploma in Education.
1992 Teachers in the former regions of KaNgwane and QwaQwa enrolled for its Diploma in Education.
1994 Education Facilitators was established after buying out the shareholders in the Norite Education and Training Company.
1994 Teachers in the former independent state of Bophuthatswana registered for its Diploma in Education.
1995 The first democratically elected parliament of South Africa approved a new democratic constitution.
1996 Dr Manganyi, Director General of Education, approved that all teachers with a Diploma in Education registered up to 1995 with the Colleges of Education Facilitators be certified as recognized qualifications for employment and salary promotion purposes.
1996 First foreign teachers in Namibia enrol for its Diploma in Education. Appointed first group Rector and Principal.
1996 Certification agreement with the University of Port Elizabeth to offer Teacher Education and Business Management qualifications through distance learning.
1996 Certification Agreement with the Technikon Pretoria to offer Teacher Education and Police Administration qualifications through distance learning.
1998 SERTEC (Certification Council for Technikon Education) inspection of Education Facilitators and subsequent approval of its Colleges to continue offering Technikon qualifications.
1998 First group of Bachelor of Technology degrees in Education Management awarded. First group of Tutored Master of Philosophy in Education candidates registered.
1999 Appointed first Managing Director: Africa and Education Facilitators’ three-year business plan was approved for restructuring and investment into Professional Services, new product offerings and increased marketing spend.
1999 Support agreement with Technikon South Africa for global library services.
2001 Colleges received accreditation from the Accrediting Commission of the DETC (Distance Education and Training Council) in Washington DC, which is recognized by the State Secretary of Education and the Federal Department of Education national accrediting agency.
2002 Unbundles South African and African operations into two independent entities. Closes College in South Africa and sells Professional Service division through a Management Buy-out. Sells African Colleges by of a Leveraged Buy-out. 2003 A further contract successfully negotiated with Tswane University of Technology, by the new director GF Knight. 2008 Company in South Africa closed officially.
Business and Service Providers to Education Facilitators
Technical and further education or simply TAFE is the common name in English-speaking countries in Oceania for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational courses.
A diploma mill is a business that sells illegitimate diplomas or academic degrees. The term diploma mill is also used pejoratively to describe any educational institution with low academic admission standards, low job placement rate, or low average starting salaries of its graduates.
Higher education in Mauritius includes colleges, universities and other technical institutions. Public university education has been free to students since 2019. The sector is managed by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) which has the responsibility for allocating public funds, and fostering, planning and coordinating the development of post-secondary education and training. Formerly the Tertiary Education Commission, in 2020 it was reformed into the HEC and a separate Quality Assurance Authority (QAA) for auditing of qualifications.
Nelson Mandela University and before that - the University of Port Elizabeth (UPE), the Port Elizabeth Technikon and Vista University's Port Elizabeth campus. This South African university has its main administration in the coastal city of Gqeberha. Nelson Mandela University was founded through a merger of three institutions in January 2005, but its history dates back to 1882, with the foundation of the Port Elizabeth Art School.
Tshwane University of Technology is a higher education institution in South Africa that came into being through a merger of three technikons — Technikon Northern Gauteng, Technikon North-West and Technikon Pretoria.
A technikon was a post-secondary institute of technology (polytech) in South Africa. It focused on career-oriented vocational training. There were 15 technikons in the 1990s, but they were merged or restructured as universities in the early 2000s.
Damelin is a private college founded in 1943 by Benjamin Damelin. Damelin has 17 campuses in South Africa and is owned by Educor group. Damelin offers degrees, diplomas and other higher qualifications, but is considered a college instead of a university due to the regulations for tertiary institutions in South Africa. Damelin is the oldest and most profitable education subsidiary owned by Educor. By November 2012, over one million students had graduated from Damelin.
Vision International College was founded in 1974 in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia by Ken Chant, an Australian theologian and author. Now located in the Sydney suburb of Minto, New South Wales, the college provides vocational ministry training by distance education with an emphasis on community service. The Reverend Denis Plant now serves as the principal of the college.
Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary, also known as Trinity College of the Bible, is a conservative evangelical Bible college and seminary located near Evansville, Indiana. Trinity offers distance education programs at undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree levels for self-directed adult learners. Programs include Certificate, Associate, Bachelor, Master, and Doctorate studies. In 2006, Trinity claimed more than 7,000 active students worldwide.
Abraham Lincoln University (ALU) is a private, for-profit online university based in Glendale, California.
The University of South Africa (UNISA) is the largest university system in South Africa by enrollment. It attracts a third of all higher education students in South Africa. Through various colleges and affiliates, UNISA has over 400,000 students, including international students from 130 countries worldwide, making it one of the world's mega universities and the only such university in Africa.
The University of Fairfax is an institution of higher education headquartered in Salem, Virginia. It offers online graduate degrees in cybersecurity, cloud computing, computer science and engineering, and business as well as several graduate certificates. The entire program is provided via instructor led conference calls and online instruction.
A certified teacher is an educator who has earned credentials from an authoritative source, such as the government, a higher education institution or a private body or source. This teacher qualification gives a teacher authorization to teach and grade in pre-schools, primary or secondary education in countries, schools, content areas or curricula where authorization is required. While many authorizing entities require student teaching experience before earning teacher certification, routes vary from country to country.
The University of Atlanta was a private, for-profit, distance education university headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It opened in Mobile, Alabama as Barrington University until it received accreditation in 2008. It relocated to Atlanta in 2008 and changed to University of Atlanta and was authorized by the State of Georgia's Nonpublic Post Secondary Education Commission. Until it closed June 30, 2013, the University of Atlanta was accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council.
Revans University, also known as The University of Action Learning (UAL), is the unaccredited degree-awarding body for the UK-based International Management Centres Association. Revans University's registered address is in Port Vila, Vanuatu, though it has also been associated with Boulder, Colorado. It has no physical campus and all its activities take place online. As of 2005, Revans University's partner organization IMCA was based in Buckingham, UK. IMCA provides accreditation of the Action Learning program of Gaia University and possibly others..
College SA is a Distance Learning Private and Business College, located in Tygervalley Bellville, South Africa. College SA offers Business, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to students, both in South Africa and internationally.
eta College is an international, private, single purpose college founded in 1983. It has nine campuses, and an online learning facility. The national office is located in Cape Town. Its purpose is to provide education for fitness sport and recreation needs. The language of instruction is English.
The IIE's Varsity College is an educational brand of The Independent Institute of Education. The IIE is the most accredited private higher education provider in SA and it is registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
