Link & Relationship with UWC

Continuing Education (CE) is changing at UWC to keep abreast with global and national developments. With the dawn of the 4th Industrial Revolution, higher education institutions are forced to reimagine their CE learning and teaching approaches to remain relevant and responsive to work and learning demands. For this reason, a more demand-driven approach is required for the provision of our CE courses and programmes. Furthermore, more pressure is placed on universities to develop new forms of sustainable income streams and COVID-19 has forced us to broaden our programme delivery modalities, to include face-to-face contact, blended learning and fully online approaches.
 

What do we mean by Continuing Education?

Continuing Education includes all short courses (ranging from a few hours to several weeks), short learning programmes (more than one “module” or phase, and with multiple summative assessment points), workshops that require a certificate, continuing professional development and similar offerings designed to attract recognition by professional and other regulatory bodies, master classes and other university certificate courses, and any other existing or future type of delivery or teaching and learning intervention that corresponds with this definition.
 

How are we changing?

Branding Strategy
Exciting new and dynamic branding strategies have been designed to promote the future CE Centre. We have worked closely with colleagues in the university and service providers to advance a more cutting-edge way to learn and teach. An innovative name for the CE Centre has been chosen that emphasises lifelong learning with distinction; a new colourful logo has been selected that represents the seven Faculties as well as the diversity of our communities.

This new brand and logo will be revealed in the next few months at UWC.
 
Marketing Strategy
With the assistance of service providers, we are planning a more aggressive marketing strategy to advertise the brand to the market. The marketing strategy will also focus on different mediums to include all age groups and market sectors. This will include enhancing our understanding of the national competitor and pricing landscape.

With the support of our ICT team, a new interactive website is in the process of development that will encourage a positive user-friendly interface experience for potential participants. People will be able to access and view our menu of courses, course dates, prices, modes of delivery, course outlines and admission requirements with greater ease.
 
Benefits to Faculties
The administrative burden will be reduced on Faculties. In order to manage risk and increase income opportunities, the new Centre will focus on the marketing; admin responsibilities which include, client enquiries, application, registration and certification processes, events management and logistical arrangements; finance and debt collection.  The Centre team will work closely with Faculties and the Registrar’s office.
 
Governance and quality assurance of CE Provision
Proper governance and quality management of all CE provision continue to be the responsibility of the Senate Academic Planning Sub-Committee for Continuing Education. This Committee is accountable to the Deputy Vice Chancellor: Academic ensuring that standard operating procedures are followed and the integrity of these processes across the course value chain. Faculties, on the other hand, continue to have internal oversight of the quality assurance processes such as course design and delivery, and the periodic review of all courses and programmes. 

The way forward…
To demonstrate our intention to deliver quality courses, we are aiming to kick off with three pilot courses towards the latter end of Q1 2021. We are currently working closely with the CIECT team to ensure a well-designed platform for the launch of these courses.

We look forward to you joining us on this new and exciting journey as we change the trajectory of Continuing Education at UWC.