SHAWCO Education Program

With support from Bombardier Transportation, SHAWCO has launched a new educational project at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The Saturday School Boost Program engages two hundred Grade 12 Cape Town students who receive focused remedial teaching in math, physical science, English, life science and accounting. These same students also receive life skills and career guidance workshops and have access to UCT facilities not currently available at their present schools. Each student is partnered with a UCT student who acts as an educational mentor offering help with their studies as well as advice on the application and entry processes in order to matriculate to university. The Saturday Boost Program is aimed at providing a concerted final push so that these students can stand a chance of being accepted into a registered tertiary institution.

In 2008, Bombardier provided funding through SHAWCO to manage the initial Saturday Program pilot projects in the Cape Town townships of Khayelitsha and Nyanga. The initiative has evolved through learning experiences and the guidance of Jonathan Clarke, Chairman, Schools Development Unit at the University of Cape Town. Through this partnership, evaluation of best practices suggested that SHAWCO take students out of the townships and expose them to a structured and positive learning environment. The University of Cape Town offers the ideal infrastructure for these students to experience university life at multiple levels.  University of Cape Town Vice Chancellor, Max Price, has been a key supporter of this initiative, committing the necessary resources needed to ensure that poor children from townships and other disadvantaged communities are given access to the University through the Saturday Program. Four students from the 2008 pilot program have been awarded Bombardier bursaries and are now admitted into UCT.  SHAWCO is administering the bursaries for these four and is also providing mentorship through dedicated staff and senior SHAWCO volunteers.