New conservation partnership set to revolutionise rural education and jobs around South Africa’s game parks
South African National Parks (SANParks) and Good Work Foundation have signed a landmark agreement that is poised to increase access to conservation education and create job opportunities for young rural South Africans living near our national parks.
In terms of a memorandum of understanding signed by the two entities, plans are afoot to expand GWF’s existing footprint by establishing additional digital learning campuses adjacent to key national parks across the country.
GWF already operates five campuses in Mpumalanga, providing digital education to schoolchildren and skills-based training to young jobseekers – a central campus in Hazyview, and four satellite campuses in villages surrounding the Sabi Sands Game Reserve. It also has a campus in the Free State Karoo town of Philippolis.
SANParks, which manages 21 national parks, is now partnering with GWF to expand the latter’s education and skills training model to rural and township communities surrounding several of these parks, starting with the Greater Kruger National Park.
The partnership will be piloted at GWF’s existing Hazyview campus, which will serve as a gateway hub to the Kruger National Park, expanding digital skills, conservation education and job opportunities for young people living in the vicinity of the game reserve. Additional campuses are also planned for the Greater Kruger area, catering to the high demand.
Closing the digital divide in the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Free State
In terms of the cooperation agreement, GWF campuses will also be established in other “mega living landscapes” identified by SANParks. This collaboration is set to empower communities living near the Eastern Cape’s Addo Elephant National Park, the Free State’s Golden Gate Highlands National Park and the Northern Cape’s Augrabies Falls and Namaqua National Parks.
Good Work Foundation CEO Kate Groch says, “GWF’s mission is to connect young South Africans with the skills they need to access opportunities for careers in South Africa’s rural spaces.” This, she explains, aligns closely with SANParks’ 2040 vision to create mega living landscapes as part of a people-centred, conservation-driven future anchored by sustainable and climate-resilient national protected areas.
Says Groch, “GWF already has more than a decade of proof of the effectiveness of our digital education model. We have also been wanting to scale our operations by identifying more local economies we can tap into in rural spaces. So, we started to talk with SANParks about being their education partner and supporting them in achieving their 2040 vision, while aligning with our own 2030 strategy.”
The GWF-SANParks partnership will focus on empowering local communities (including teachers) as custodians of South Africa’s natural heritage, including creating jobs within the conservation economy.
‘Multiplier effect will benefit tens of thousands of young people’
With GWF already serving over 13 500 young people across its existing operations, the envisaged extra campuses will see a massive multiplier effect, giving tens of thousands of young South Africans access to conservation education, skills and jobs, she adds.
Many children living near game parks have never seen a lion or elephant in the wild, Groch says – something that this partnership aims to change. Opportunities are also set to open up for students at GWF’s Career Academies and Bridging Year Academy to undertake internships and work placements at SANParks establishments.
For Groch, a qualified zoologist, former schoolteacher and one-time travelling tutor with a passion for environmental education, the partnership with SANParks symbolises coming full circle, combining “everything I’ve studied and been passionate about”.
“If the work we do to connect young people to these job opportunities and careers ends up supporting a vision to protect our beautiful wild spaces, that’s an added impact. The bigger picture is about nurturing young people who can work in those spaces, who are connected to those spaces and who can also start to develop those spaces thoughtfully,” she says.
“The opportunities are endless for the development of those regions and communities, as we seek to challenge what we learn, how we learn, who has access to learning and how we get young rural South Africans into career paths in the economies where they live.”
