The Unit focuses on internal as well as external support, via identifying key policy, landscape and other trends.
As many commentators and economists have pointed out, globally the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is upon us, with the Internet of Things (IoT) and other positive disruption events driving rapid change. The shifts in learning technologies and approaches have been just as significant. The College has been examining and positioning itself to take full advantage of the opportunities that arise from the 4IR, as well as developing solutions to mitigate some of its negative impacts.
The first major initiative was securing a Google Suite for Education grant for the College. The Google Suite for Education has enabled the College to enhance its learning methodologies and tools, bringing much needed focus on our slogan, “Training beyond Boundaries”.
The Google Suite for Education has been successfully piloted in several modules in our Higher Education qualifications, with positive feedback from our students, who have found the system to be very useful. We will continue to explore its potential and will see how we can further integrate it into our learning toolkit.
Internally, the Unit is also responsible for the education and training policy framework. Through internal dialogues and support requests it has initiated several new focus areas, such as enhanced learner support and institutionally accredited short course development.
The primary objective of its Sector Advancement activities is to ensure that conservation education and training trends as well as sector issues are proactively addressed with partner organisations. The need for fit-for-purpose registered qualifications for field rangers is incredibly urgent, as technology advances and the impacts of transnational organised crime are felt via the spectre of Illegal Wildlife Trafficking (IWT).
This form of technical advocacy plays a role in entrenching existing relationships and providing support to state agencies and other networks.