Benefits

1. How the public benefits
   
   The public benefits from a wide selection of relevant learning opportunities. Our range of workshops suits a variety of learning styles and competencies. Chance 2 Advance participants from diverse communities are afforded the opportunity to closely interact with experts and practitioners.
   
   Participants receive Chance 2 Advance certificates of attendance. Many are already incorporating our certificates as part of their CVs to show would-be employers their commitment to learning and personal development. We are receiving positive feedback that workshop participants are becoming employed, initiating their own businesses and gaining a better understanding of social justice issues.
   
   Through participating in Chance 2 Advance events communities can:
   • Improve their health and wellbeing.
   • Gain an understanding of themselves, their society and the world.
   • Become aware of social justice issues facing their community.
   • Enhance their capacity to act through learning.
   • Become constructive, ethical and active citizens.
   • Understand rights and responsibilities
   • Acquire skills to increase their probability of employment.
   • Develop an entrepreneurial mindset and the knowledge of how to start and sustain their own businesses.
   • Understand the interdependency between people and the environment.
   
   Accessibility
   
   The Chance 2 Advance is an open admission programme ensuring wider participation in community learning. There are no entry requirements. Workshops have descriptions, target audiences and level descriptors to ensure that the correct target audience is reached.
   
   No Cost

   Our workshops are offered free of charge to under-served communities.
   
   Government, business and civil society also benefit from our range of capacity building efforts.

2. How academics, experts and practitioners benefit

• • Academics across disciplines can participate in the development and design of learning content, workshop facilitation and community conversations. The programme has created an opportunity to share critical knowledge and research findings with communities. The insight, interaction and observation from real circumstances on the ground is fed back into the design of course material and research articles.

• • The Chance 2 Advance has formed strong relationships with a wide range of community stakeholders that contribute to the enrichment of engaged scholarship.
    
    
  • Our stakeholders include: Health Care providers, Human and Social Services, Basic and Higher Education, Government, Civil Society, Business, Media, Recreation, Grassroots organizations, social justice formations and the Media.
    
    
  • We prepare participating academics and subject matter experts on the contextual application of subject matter, community development, capacity building, skills development, community education, education as liberation, workshop facilitation, and mega class workshop facilitation.

When participating as a community education facilitator you can:

• • Develop the skills for engaged scholarship.
  • Apply your knowledge in a community context for public good.
  • Showcase your research and talents to a wider audience outside of the academic community.
  • Bridge the gap between the academy and communities.
  • Become part of a collaborative education and community development network that will benefit your teaching, learning and research.

Please note:

• • To become a Chance 2 Advance facilitator, kindly contact our office for a proposal template
    
    
  • For more information on how you can add value to your academic teaching and research through participation in the Chance 2 Advance programme kindly contact our office and we will gladly assist in this regard.

3. Learning Ambassadors
   
   Who are the Chance 2 Advance Ambassadors?
   
   Chance 2 Advance ambassadors are exciting, pioneering and talented people, who are active in their local community or organisations, they enjoy all forms of learning and have an insatiable curiosity. They are in the position to influence and enthuse others about the significance of learning.  They understand the advantages of learning and can clearly discern the link between learning and a better life.
   
   Chance 2 Advance Learning Ambassadors have a number of roles and functions which include:

• • Encouraging people to discover their learning agency and become active citizens
  • Using virtual and other social networks to spread the message that anyone can learn
  • Capturing new ideas about learning
  • Pointing people in the right direction about what societal issues to be aware of
  • Sharing their knowledge and skills
  • Communicating effectively
  • Exercising good judgment
    
    The following skills are acquired when becoming a Chance 2 Advance Learning Ambassador:

1. 1. 1. Community Development
      2. Teamwork
      3. Management and Leadership Skills
      4. Communication Skills
      5. Technical skills
      6. Working across cultural diversity
      7. Helping Others
      8. Event management skills

4. University students
   
   
• The Chance 2 Advance positively contributes towards student readiness to enter into higher education and the pursuit of life-long learning with community development consciousness.
  
  
• Chance 2 Advance works with Unisa students from undergrad to postgrad (doctoral level) supporting the programme interventions in different capacities. Our participating students develop their skills by occupying key leadership roles in the project. Students receive community development and empowerment training and accompany the programme implementation in different communities. Students develop an understanding of community engagement as a social justice imperative. Students also learn to participate as active citizens in their own communities.