THE Cookhouse Wind Farm has partnered with the Department of Social Development to support training and mentoring programmes at 28 Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres in the Somerset East, Cookhouse, Bedford and Adelaide areas.
The most recent cohort of 44 ECD practitioners graduated on 6 December 2018, having commenced with NQF Level 2 training, in April of 2017. Boasting a 92% pass rate, this brings the number of practitioners that have been upskilled as part of the Cookhouse Wind Farm ECD Flagship programme to 91, since its inception in 2016.
“It is this type of partnership that supports sustainable development, in the form of upskilling of Practitioners, to ensure improved teaching that enables our communities’ children to benefit today and for generations to come,” said Elton Gordon, Special Projects Manager in the Community Operations Department at Cookhouse Wind Farm.
He added that an overall increase of 47% in the overall development of learners were measured using five Development Domains over 12 months, starting from January 2017 to December 2017. “This significant improvement is attributed to the NQF Level 2 training implemented during 2016.”
Training is further supported by ongoing mentoring and coaching, which is provided to qualified practitioners to help them put their training into action in the classroom.
Marcia Douglas, ECD Practitioner at Wonderland Educare, said, “The local mentor has helped me to understand how important it is to develop a child holistically and taught me how to stimulate children and interact with children in a meaningful way.”