FEMEF was established by the Federated Employers Mutual Assurance Company (FEM), the workmen’s compensation mutual insurer for the construction industry
FEM Education Foundation (FEMEF), the non-profit organisation (NPO), has appointed two new partners for 2022 that provide teacher and student education.
FEMEF was established by the workmen’s compensation mutual insurer for the construction industry, the Federated Employers Mutual Assurance Company (FEM).
Thandulwazi Mathematics and Science Academy operates at St Stithians College in Johannesburg and was established in 2005. It runs four educational programmes, two for students and two for teachers. These cover early childhood development through training and development of practitioners and provide in-service training for mathematics and natural science General Education and Training (GET) teachers.
Over 14,546 pre-primary and primary school teachers have been upskilled to date. The Academy also runs a Saturday school programme for Grade 9 to 12 learners from more than 150 surrounding public schools and 850 to 1100 learners benefit from the programme annually. Over 11,670 learners have participated since 2011. It also runs a Further Education and Training (FET) Scholarship programme for learners with high academic potential, but from historically disadvantaged backgrounds to attend well-resourced schools.
The Academy has trained over 207 young intern teachers since 2005. It is in this space of initial teacher training that Thandulwazi has partnered with FEMEF for the training of 20 intern teachers in the Waterberg District of Limpopo province. The intern teachers are placed in ten public primary schools.
The second beneficiary, Khanyisa Inanda Seminary Community Projects (KICP), is a teacher professional development organisation running eight programmes that focus on empowering and developing pre-service and in-service teachers for Public Schools in the KZN province.
KICP was registered as an NPO in 2016 with 12 teacher interns, a single host school and one project manager. In 2022 this has increased to 130 teacher interns, 41 host schools and eight project managers. FEMEF will be providing funding for 30 primary school teacher interns, who will be placed in 10 host schools in the rural area of Ndwedwe, northern KZN over the next two years.
FEMEF’s other partners are Funda Wande, Make a Difference Foundation (MAD), Smart Start, Columba, and Symphonia for South Africa through its Partners for Possibility (PfP) programme.