ACADEMY For A Young Africa

Welcome!

The Academy For A Young Africa (AFAYA) is a “blended” learning institution, which offers courses to people across Africa, through combining online learning through a mobile phone with Study Group Sessions to connect you to other students and build a learning community. Finally, you get a new task (assignment) each day, which involves something that you have to DO.

We want YOU to develop real, practical skills that will help you to build a BEAUTIFUL life!

Actually, the most important part of learning through the Academy For A Young Africa (AFAYA) is DOING what you are learning! This is not just a theoretical study programme – the ACADEMY For A Young Africa makes sure that you actually DO what you learn about, preparing you for a productive, purposeful and successful life, whether you are pursuing a career or if you want to start or run your own business in the best possible manner.

___________________________

How Our Courses Work

• Each Module runs over six months. This is a ‘semester’.
• Each semester has two ‘terms’. One term runs over three months and includes ‘Term Holidays’.
• There are no assignments, study group meetings or training sessions during Public Holidays, and there are short holidays during each half-year (semester).
• Please note that our courses are either FULL-TIME Skills Training Programmes or PART-TIME Skills Training Programmes.
• If you are registered for a FULL-TIME Skills Training Programme, you will be expected to focus on your studies FULL-TIME while you are studying at home and completing your daily tasks, 4 days per week, and on 1 day per week you will be attending a Groupwork Session at a venue in your community. Once a month you will need to attend an Evaluation (Test) Session, also at a venue in your community.
• If you are registered for a PART-TIME Skills Training Programme, you will focus on doing assignments online and meeting with your fellow students in online Group Sessions, while your monthly Evaluation (Test) Session will be held on a Saturday at a venue in a town near you.
• We believe in bringing students together, to build business networks and friendships for life.
• Also note, the Practical Assignments of our Core Leadership And Entrepreneurship Training Programme will teach you HOW TO MAKE MONEY, from the very first month of taking part in any of our Courses. If you follow the instructions, you will be able to start generating an income while you are studying – EARN while you LEARN.

We will give you the knowledge – but YOU are responsible for your success!

As a LEAP student, you will learn through 6 different ways of learning:

• Personal reading and writing assignments (You will need to get an own pen and notebook. We will help you to arrange books, newspapers or magazines to read)
• Online reading and responding to quizzes (You can read on your cellphone or on any computer that has internet, for instance at a Youth Centre or Public Library)
• Action Assignments (You will be asked to do something, like interviewing a neighbour or shop owner)
• Groupwork assignments – Group discussions
• Groupwork assignments – Practical assignments (You will be asked to organise activities as a team)
• Monthly Assessments – You will keep a record of all your assignments and report on them verbally once a month. You will also write one monthly Assessment Paper.

If you are curious and want to see some of the ideas that we will share with you, please click on the link below to download a FREE eBook.

Introducing Our ACADEMY

The ‘ACADEMY For A Young Africa’ (AFAYA) is a mass distance learning institution aimed at teaching leadership and entrepreneurship skills to the estimated more than 1 billion children, youth and adults across Africa. AFAYA’s Courses use a ‘Learning By Doing’ approach, with students completing practical assignments, both to learn to get ‘real things’ done, as well as to learn to use state-of-the-art cloudware for businesses. The ACADEMY offers both structured and self-study courses to encourage life-long learning.

We partner with churches, youth organisations, women’s organisations and private training service providers who all can become “Satellite Campuses” of the ACADEMY For A Young Africa.

AFAYA works through state-of-the-art online and mobile technology which makes it possible for us to reach each individual, personally! So while the ACADEMY For A Young Africa has been designed to reach and work large numbers of students, the course work and overall approach is individualised: each student participating receives personal attention, through a system of ongoing mentorship and group-based education. As a student learns the skills she or he needs to be successful, each one helps to pass on the skills to a new intake of students. We believe that one of the best ways to learn, is to teach others. So through a system of Study Groups students learn together, while also learning from one another. This method has been tested, piloted and proven with different groups of unemployed youth over a period of more than 15 years.

AFAYA offers theory courses through an innovative Learning Management System.

In addition, AFAYA coordinates opportunities for students to work as community volunteers as part of their practical assignments, ensuring that each student builds work experience which is so critical to find work or understand how to work within and lead a team, if the student wants to become an entrepreneur.

AFAYA furthermore introduces students to ‘real’ systems and institutions, aimed at helping them to grow their careers or start up a business. This includes participation in an innovative ‘Young Africa REWARDS’ system, whereby students are placed in volunteer community work positions, but can earn ‘Rewards’, based on a funded ‘points’ system. These points may be used towards vouchers to access further career development or related services.

Funds to finance the Points are generated both through the AFAYA course fees, as well as through social investments from grantmakers and corporate social responsibility funding. These funds are raised through the Young Africa FOUNDATION, which is registered as a non-profit organisation in South Africa and may extend donor certificates for tax deduction purposes.

Placements for internships and volunteer positions are coordinated by Young Africa TALENT, an international recruitment and internship and temporary work placement services business.

Registered students also have the ability to earn shares in ‘Young Africa INVESTMENTS‘ , an investment fund which works to build businesses across Africa, focusing on the following six strategic sectors: Community, Culture, Ecology, Education, Health and Innovation.

Students learn to save and build a credit rating by participating as members in the ‘Young Africa MONEY CLUB‘ – a savings and lending cooperative.

As part of their coursework AFAYA students actually start up a new business under the guidance of the Young Africa INVESTMENTS’ commercial partner, which offers enterprise development services.

Should a student who has started up a new business require a business loan, such loan finance may be made available through Young Africa FINANCE.

Young Africa INSURANCE offers short-term and long-term insurance products at a discounted rate to the businesses which form part of the Young Africa NETWORK, while cost savings are also enabled through shared buying services negotiated on behalf of the businesses who are members of this network.

BONUS ACTIVITY: In addition, at the end of each term students have the opportunity to take part in a Voluntary Student Exchange Programme during the Term Holidays. This Student Exchange Programme is aimed at broadening your mind and encouraging you to move somewhere else for one month, so that you can get to know a different part of the country. At the end of your course of study, the ACADEMY For A Young Africa also offers opportunities to interested students to gain work experience in another country, globally, where possible.

_______________________

LEAP Course Calendar – 2021

Our Core Learning Programme

Currently, the ACADEMY For A Young Africa offers only one CORE LEARNING PROGRAMME, namely the “Leadership And Entrepreneurship Programme” (LEAP), aimed at unemployed youth across Africa. This course prepares students for the world of work, or for further studies or for starting an own business. It provides training in different business software systems, to help students be ready for the new economy.

The LEAP Course Content is based on the four parts of what makes us a human being:

In order to be successful as human beings, each one of us needs to learn to understand the four parts of what makes us human:

• BODY: If we want to achieve success in life and live a healthy life, we need to understand how our body works, and how we can look after it in the best possible way. This is not just about our own body – this is also about caring for our family, our home and our environment, and appreciating our culture, because all of these are needed to keep us healthy and full of energy, make sure that we have a strong personal identity and can be self-confident in interacting with other people.

• MIND: God has given human beings a mind that can learn and develop itself throughout life. It is our mind that helps us to develop the skills we need to make money, either through working for someone else or by making money ourselves. The LEAP Course will teach you how to develop your mind, express your creativity and understand how to find the knowledge you need to be practical and successful and how to make AND manage your money, so that you can build a financially stable and successful life, to take care of yourself, your family, build your community and contribute to a strong and peaceful society by paying taxes to government. You will also learn to use the digital technology that is critical for success in your career or business in the 21st Century, and to understand the amazing opportunities that this digital economy is creating for you! This part of the LEAP Course will really help you to understand how business works, whether you are planning to work for someone else or make your own money.

• EMOTIONS: Our emotions are very important, because we need to understand how to find happiness and build good relationships with the people around us. We humans cannot survive on our own: we need one another. Also, becoming very good at building relationships is what will make sure that you are more successful in your career, or in your business. If you know how to manage your emotions and how to care for other people, you will move ahead MUCH FASTER in every area of your life. This part of the LEAP Course will teach you excellent communication skills, conflict management skills, coordination and teamwork skills and community building skills.

• SPIRIT: We humans all have a spirit. This is what remains after our body has died. The LEAP Course teaches knowledge about the Spirit, according to the teachings of the Bible. This knowledge is now between 2000-6000 years old and has helped many civilisations to grow strong over the centuries. People who have learnt how to develop a strong spirit can overcome problems that people who have a weak spirit struggle with. LEAP will teach you how to become inspired, motivated and encouraged, so that you can stay focused on achieving your goals in life, and inspire, motivate and encourage others.

_______________________

“We shape our lives through the choices that we make. If we make GOOD choices, we build beautiful lives. If we make BAD choices, we build sad lives. The LEAP Course prepares students to have the knowledge they need in the 21st Century to make GOOD choices, while giving them all the information and encouragement youth needs to be able to build BEAUTIFUL lives, by building loving families, caring communities, successful businesses and a strong and peaceful country. LEAP aims to teach youth across Africa these skills, so that – through our youth – this Continent will become a space of global inspiration!”

Reinhild Niebuhr – Founder, Young Africa VISION

__________________________

LEAP Course Bursaries

The ACADEMY For A Young Africa has arranged BURSARIES for unemployed youth from disadvantaged families, who are South African citizens aged 19 to 27.

These bursaries are provided by large companies, including mining companies, through a South African government tax rebate initiative. The value of the bursary is R42 000.00 per year, (R3500 per month) in the form of the tax rebate received by the company. This means that the company uses this money to cover all the costs related to your training.

In order to enable this tax rebate initiative, all students receiving a bursary will need to sign an “Employment Contract” as a trainee with the company that provides the bursary. If your bursary application is successful, you will then be added to the payroll of that company, and the company will provide you with a SARS Tax Number, and register you with the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).

As a trainee, you will not receive any salary from the company. Instead, the companies providing the bursary have been given this government tax incentive to give you an opportunity to receive excellent training, to make you ready for the world of work or to teach you how to start your own business over the period of the 1-year LEAP Course.

This tax incentive has been designed by the South African government in order to encourage large companies to assist in skills development of unemployed youth on a mass scale.

If you successfully complete the Leadership And Entrepreneurship Programme (LEAP) Course you will receive a SAQA Accredited Skills Certificate.

PLEASE NOTE: The LEAP Course Bursaries are only available for South African citizens. If you are not a South African citizen, you can still take part in the LEAP Course, but you will need to pay for your own student fees. Please click on this link for more information.

__________________________

Watch This Space!

Don’t miss out on this AMAZING OPPORTUNITY to kick-start your life and get ready for success. Click on the button below to join our Facebook Group to find out when we are opening REGISTRATION and BURSARY APPLICATIONS for the LEAP Course!

Get Ready For A Life Of All-Round SUCCESS!

“God did not give us a Spirit of Fear. His Spirit is a source of POWER and LOVE and SELF-DISCIPLINE.”

– 2 Timothy 1:7