Students are most likely to fly to South Africa on their gap year, according to new research from the Year Out Group.
Figures from the not-for-profit organisation revealed that the country was closely followed by Canada and Kenya as the most popular countries for structured gap year placements.
Commenting on the findings, Richard Oliver, chief executive of Year Out Group, said that more gap year students were booking flights to their gap year destinations.
"The number of individuals embarking on volunteering projects, expeditions, structured work placements, courses and cultural exchanges is on the increase - Year Out Group members alone sent nearly 47,000 people on gap year schemes in 2007," he said.
The findings also showed that the UK is no longer placed inside the top 12 destinations, as more adventurous students look to fly further afield.
Peru, Tanzania and India all remained popular, while Ecuador and the US saw an increase in the number of British students taking a gap year there.
A report in the Guardian earlier this month suggested that fewer students may take gap years in the future in the face of rising rents at university and an uncertain financial future.
We have been running our courses for several years, and most are tutored by multi-award-winning South African writers - at an affordable cost. All our courses are one-on-one over a period of at least five months, and we aim to train writers from every corner of South Africa.
We also offer two full bursaries per year, and run two national writing competitions.
Henrietta Rose Innes and Jo-Anne Richards - Write A Novel Course. admin@sawriterscollege.co.za (a national, one-year online course with one-on-one guidance and training by award-winning writers) Tel: 021 433-2879; enrol at www.sawriterscollege.co.za
Helen Brain's Write A Children's Book Course - admin@sawriterscollege.co.za (a 12-month online course with one-on-one guidance and tutelage by award-winning author, Helen Brain) Tel: 021 433-2879; enrol at www.sawriterscollege.co.za
Janie Oosthuysen's Skryfgeheime Vir Kinderboeke - admin@sawriterscollege.co.za (an eight-month online course with one-on-one guidance and training by the multi-award-winning children's book author, Janie Oosthuysen) Tel: 021 433-2879; enrol at www.sawriterscollege.co.za
Ginny Swart: Short Story Writing Course - admin@sawriterscollege.co.za (a six-month online course with one-on-one tutoring by Ginny Swart - the multi-award-winning writer) Tel: 021 433-2879; enrol at www.sawriterscollege.co.za
Peter Cross: Write A Non-fiction Book - admin@sawriterscollege.co.za (a twelve-month online course with individual tutoring by author and journalist, Peter Cross) Tel: 021 433-2879; enrol at www.sawriterscollege.co.za
SA Writers' College - admin@sawriterscollege.co.za (a national, online writing school for career training and for creative writing enthusiasts. All courses offer at least five months of one-on-one training under a top South African writer.) Tel: 021 433-2879; enrol at www.sawriterscollege.co.za
Having established how much the business needs to spend, the next step is to consider what to spend the money on so it will count as contributions to transformation. This section provides guidance on what the company may and may not include as skills development spend. The term “skills development spend” is defined, meaning that unless the spend meets the definition, it will not be included in the measurement.
This means the measured entity may not include anything that does not meet the definition of “skills development spend” in this measurement. The definition is broad but specifically excludes the skills development levy paid to the industry SETA. The business has to pay an SDLA levy over and above this. The targeted BEE skills development spend is 2% of the leviable amount.
The skills development spend includes any legitimate expense incurred for a learning programme that can be substantiated by an invoice or appropriate internal accounting record. Although not a requirement of the Codes, learning programmes that do not issue written certification of attendance and completion should be encouraged to provide written confirmation of the employee’s enrolment and achievement.
Legitimate training expenses that can form part of the skills development spend include:
costs of training materials
costs of trainers
costs of training facilities, including catering
course fees
accommodation and travel costs
administration costs relating to training, including the costs of a skills development facilitator or a training manager
The salaries and wages of employees participating as learners where the learning programme falls into category B, C or D of the learning programme matrix or qualifies as a learnership. The Codes do not define the term “learnership”. Previous drafts of the Codes refer to the definition as provided by the Skills Development Act, which is a SETA-accredited learnership.
As described previously, examples of learnerships include apprenticeships, professional articles or internships. Section 3.7 says the cost of the salaries of Black learnerships may be included in calculating the skills development spend.
While the rationale for including this spend is understandable, the unintended consequence is a crowding out of the intended objective of this element. Many businesses based on professions or trades will reach the target without having to contribute anything further to skills development, thus undermining the element.
scholarships and bursaries, unless the measured entity can recover the expenses from the employee or the grant is conditional. The bursary or scholarship may still be recognised if the condition imposed is the:
successful completion of the course within the allocated time period
continued employment with the measured entity for a duration less than or equivalent to the period of the bursary.
Scholarships and bursaries are only recognisable in skills development where they are granted in favour of an employee, meaning that the candidate is either studying part-time or has taken extended leave to complete a specified course. School leavers who have not yet worked for the measured entity but have been granted a bursary to complete tertiary education will be recognised under Statement 807 / 700 Socio-economic development.
The Cape based Arabella Golf Club is not only known for its superb facilities, but also for the prestigious golf school “ Alison Sheard Golf Academy”. At this well known Arabella golf school, golfers can learn how to play golf or improve their game. They offer various golf lessons and group clinics no matter how old you are.
The Arabella golf school offers half an hour, one hour, and advanced one to three day golf courses.
The head pro of the Arabella golf school or as it is widely known Alison Sheard Golf Academy is no other than Alison Sheard, holder of 9 SA Open wins. She is reputed for excellence and an excellent track record as well as experience. She is also a founding member of the Women’s Golf Association in Europe.
The teaching division of the Arabella golf school offers exciting holiday clinics for school going golfers and then the ladies can brush up on their skills in the period of November to May.
Contact details:
Alison Sheard Head Professional In season (October – April) Tel: +27 28 284 0105 or 082 299 2152 E-mail: golf@arabellawesterncapehotel.co.za
I have 2 blogs. ShopWestCoast which keeps business owners on the West Coast of South Africa upto date on the business happenings on the West Coast. And http://courseslessonsclasses.blogspot.com/ www.courses.co.za which is a FREE listing service for anybody offering any form of education, lessons, seminar, course or training.
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