Jonathan Jansen: Use year to improve results

Tens of thousands of young people are about to lose lots of money. It is a scary no-man’s land between the announcement of the matric results and entrance to university.

Stranded in this zone of hopelessness, you will find young people who either failed the National Senior Certificate examinations (Grade 12) or passed so poorly that they did not gain access to higher education. Enter the business vultures, those lowlife enterprises that cater to such desperation with all kinds of short courses and promising diplomas, at a price of course.

With few exceptions, these are massive scams run by scam artists who prey on the most vulnerable in our society in pursuit of easy profit. They offer anything from hairdressing certificates to engineering qualifications (believe it or not), regardless of your school results.

The reason they do not care about academic preconditions is because that would hurt their margins – too few qualifying students mean too little money to sustain even these skeletal operations. Such bogus colleges are often small, freshly painted “offices” in some shabby downtown building with large print, handpainted names for the so-called education and training site.

The “lecturers” are not people with advanced qualifications and hard experience in advanced business organisations. Nor is there any modesty among these crooks for the word “international” might even precede the name of this flighty college.

But the student is desperate, and shows up with pocketfuls of cash and hands it over for a low-level computer course or secretarial diploma. Anything to get the piece of paper that would hopefully get you some skills or, better still, a job.

To the young people tempted by these scam operations, here is my advice. First of all, there are no short cuts to success.

While I understand the urgency and desperation of your situation, you will be flushing your money down the drain.

You are still young, so rather repeat your Grade 12 courses through an accredited provider and take the time to improve your academic standing in the relevant subjects. If required, repeat Grade 12.

Second, in a modern economy powered by new technologies, no company takes a serious look at short courses completed by suspect colleges even for entry level jobs.

Employers want to know that you have completed a solid academic degree or an accredited technical diploma – that already says something about you – that you have the basic competences and dispositions that would benefit from on-the-job training.

Third, if you really must take this route of registering at an independent college, demand that it gives you evidence that the organisation is registered and that its programmes are accredited by the appropriate education authorities in South Africa. And do not only take its word for it – call the Department of Higher Education and Training to confirm that the status of these providers. Your biggest challenge right now is your self-image. Given your poor results, you might even believe that you deserve these lesser colleges and qualifications for not doing as well as your peers.

That is not true. You deserve a high quality education and training like everybody else. In fact, it is your right to demand access to the best education available whether or not you pay for it.

Then there is the pressure of your family. You do not want to spend this year doing nothing.

So you reason that even taking some short courses will keep you busy. Your whole life lies ahead of you. No need to rush. Rather plan carefully the next steps in your training and career. Sit down with a career counsellor and chart the next few years of your life in short, simple, deliberate steps.

Here is an example. So you want to become a teacher, but your results are too weak. The only subjects that sank you are English and mathematics, not by much.

Take those two courses again at an accredited college. Rather use the money you would have spent on a short course to pay for quality tutors in each of these subjects. This time, put in several hours a day of learning to ensure you get good marks in these subjects at the end of this year.

Then, volunteer as a teacher’s assistant for half a day at some school or preschool. Even if they do not pay you, the experience is invaluable and the fact that this work appears on your curriculum vitae makes an impression on university officials, but especially future employers.

Then apply in good time for a Bachelor of Education degree next year.