UPDATE ON HGA LEARN

It has been a busy quarter for our student programme with a number of students completing their in-service training and submitting their diploma applications, a process we take time to facilitate and guide.

HGA does not have a set time in the year when students are selected and placed on farms as we have wanted to be flexible enough to be able to assist a student regardless of the number of months of training they require in order to meet the requirements of their chosen qualifications. Most of our students (98 %) are undertaking a National Diploma in Farm Management and require 18 months of work-place experience in order to graduate but students have quite often already completed some in-service training when they apply to our programme. There are other programmes and businesses in existence where students can obtain the prerequisite training but none that we are aware of that offer them the full 18 months that is required. For this reason we are often approached by students still needing a further 6 months of training in order to graduate and have therefore chosen to select and place students on an ad hoc basis throughout the year in order to be able to assist in this way.

Sanele Madikizela is from Bizana in the Eastern Cape and completed his 18 months of in-service training on Olivar Farm near Ixopo under the mentorship of the Reynolds. One of the things that impressed them about Sanele was his entrepreneurial spirit. While undertaking his in-service training he started a calf rearing business alongside his college lecturer in Umzimkhulu and since moving back to Bizana after obtaining his diploma he has started a poultry business with free-ranging Koekoeks which provide both eggs and meat.