A new online platform, Get SACE CPTD, has been created to help make mandatory Professional Development opportunities more accessible and affordable for South African teachers.
Due to the pandemic, providers of Continuing Professional Teacher Development (CPTD) activities and courses for South African teachers relied heavily on digital tools to disseminate content.
Following this, there had been an increase in the need for more widely accessible and cost-effective further development resources to bridge the gap between Professional Development (PD) providers and teachers.
Get SACE CPTD, an information and service hub that is free to all South African teachers and schools, is set to bridge the gap.
Paige Davidson, the managing director of Get SACE CPTD, said that for more than six years they have been working hard to help teachers navigate the CPTD system and better themselves as educators.
“The last two years have seen a significant uptake in the number of teachers using the system as a tool to further their careers and embrace ongoing skills development. After spending years in this space, we identified the problem that many South African teachers do not have easy and affordable access to the full extent of the activities they can complete to earn CPTD points, many of which are available online. The Get SACE CPTD online platform provides a simple solution to this problem,” she said.
The online platform will be launched virtually on October 27, 2021. The platform will service PD providers, offering activities, workshops, webinars, online courses and resources to South African teachers.
Teachers who are looking to earn PD points – as per legislature set out by the South African Council for Educators (SACE) – can use the site to browse and enrol in activities from anywhere, at any time. Providers will gain access to a comprehensive suite of services including assistance with SACE accreditation, an online listing of their offering to teachers and the facilitation of their online webinars.
The platform focuses on the following categories: Teaching Tips; Teacher Wellness; Management; EdTech and Innovation; Diversity, Equality and Transformation; Inclusion and Intervention; “The Whole Child”; and Leadership and Development.
“Through this platform, we aim to centralise CPTD by bringing together PD providers, teachers and schools on one easy-to-use online platform. Our desire is to reform CPTD through making quality opportunities easily accessible to South African teachers and schools. We are confident that this service will help to make the system more widely available and user-friendly,” Davidson said.