This year is rapidly drawing to a close, with the College and its students taking a welcome break from 17 December 2024 to 6 January 2025.
2024 finished off solidly with our flagship Natural Resource Management NQF 5 and 6 student graduation on 28 November 2024. It’s the day our long terms students have been waiting for. Its filled with camaraderie, joy and all the pomp and ceremony that goes with graduation, and then some.
It’s always very special for the students, their families, guests from their respective conservation organisations, and the staff as it signifies all the bonds formed, hard work and sacrifices made by our long-term students from across the region.
The graduation also coincided with our final Board of Directors meeting held on 27 November 2024, during which the framework for our 2025 – 2030 business strategy was presented.
This signals an exciting path for the College, especially considering that conservation challenges are multifaceted and interconnected, reflecting the complexity of both ecological systems and human societies. To ensure that we deliver students capable of responding to and managing these challenges, requires a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach, as well as quality programmes based on the needs of the sector. Exciting times indeed, and we will share more about this as 2025 unfolds.
Despite 2024 having been both a long and short year, with its own challenges and highlights, we are also buoyed to be part of some exciting initiatives both locally and globally alongside our partners. Underpinning this is the dedication and commitment of our Executive and Management teams, as well as the work of each and every staff member who helps support the mission and values of the College, whilst driving it forward. In the articles below, you can read about some of the work conducted in the last quarter of the year that illustrates this.
We would also be remiss not to thank our board members, donors, supporters and conservation organisations for their support and inputs over the past year. It is such a privilege working where we do, and doing what we do, to ensure that the people we train can go out and make a difference in their own places of work and within their communities. Without our people, and every person and organisation we collaborate and engage with, our work would simply not be possible. Thank you!
Wishing you all a wonderful and joyous break over the festive season.
Till next year,
Jeanné