Powering GWF’s Ecosystem of Learning and Working
By Verena Wagner, development manager at Good Work Foundation
Good Work Foundation (GWF) offers its students and learners an Ecosystem of Learning and Working – a perpetual cycle with education, access (to learning, training and work opportunities) and upliftment as its driving forces. Fuelling this system are our valued partnerships – a major player being our Conservation Alliance, made up of lodge establishments and private game reserves within the Greater Kruger National Park. These partners fully understand and embrace the power and importance of ecosystems and interconnectedness.
GWF is situated in Mpumalanga and the Free State, with five of its six digital learning campuses based in communities that border the western boundary of the Kruger National Park and the Sabi Sands Game Reserve.
Residents of these communities are primarily employed in the tourism industry, many working in lodges and hotels that accommodate tourists exploring the wild, natural spaces around them. Being based in remote rural areas, these communities are largely impoverished, and access to quality education and employment is limited. Many homes are child-headed and dependant ratios are high.
GWF’s Ecosystem of Learning and Working offers a young person the opportunity to improve their education and gives them access to opportunities. The Conservation Alliance helps by ensuring educational programmes are implemented, assisting school-going learners through to adults. Partners support the operations of GWF’s digital learning campuses, ensuring these community hubs can function. Beneficiaries – the students and full-time GWF staff – are often family members of lodge staff, meaning that these partners are investing in their employees and helping uplift their communities.
Further, lodge partners have invested time and effort into helping design our Career Academies, specifically the Hospitality Academy and Conservation Academy. By guiding GWF on the needs and requirements for the workplace, recruitment into the lodges and other establishments has become more seamless. Partners also open their doors to provide GWF with practical training space, allowing students to shadow various departments.
Over the past few years, recruitment from GWF has become the first port of call for many of our partners. A symbiotic relationship has been established where, by leveraging the Youth Employment Service scheme, a graduate can be employed for 12 months on an internship, after which every effort is made to employ that intern full-time. This way, students gain 12 months of quality practical work experience in a well-established organisation, and the organisation receives 12 months of reduced-risk resources and capacity.
Broadening learners’ understanding of the wildlife economy is something the Conservation Alliance focuses on from an early age. Through initiatives such as the Sabi Sands School Safari Programme, GWF, lodges and the Sabi Sands Game Reserve foster a love of and connection to wild spaces in these learners.
Many people living on the borders of pristine reserves within the Greater Kruger National Park have not had sufficient access to wild spaces and wildlife to truly value what happens inside the reserves. Therefore, addressing conservation issues such as poaching is a major challenge. But, by providing experiential learning for schoolchildren (as the School Safari Programme does), the importance of protecting wildlife is emphasised. This is further reinforced when communities understand how they can participate in and benefit from the wildlife economy through conservation and tourism, leveraging these industries for work and business opportunities.
As the old African proverb goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” GWF and our Conservation Alliance partners live this daily. By working together, we are systemically elevating the livelihoods of entire communities – providing learning and working opportunities, and unleashing potential by leveraging technology, collaborating on conservation efforts and believing in a common goal for good.
GWF is deeply grateful for the support and partnership of all the organisations we work with.
