About us - The Overstrand Learning Hub

Our story

The Overstrand Learning Hub (OLH) was established by Hermanus Varsity Trust (HVT) in 2021 to support distance learning students from the Overstrand through the challenging journey of online learning.

Active since 2018, HVT recognised the desperate need to empower students to become self-sufficient, but also enable them to make a positive difference in the community where they work and live.

With the crisis in education in focus, the first courses we are supporting are all in the field of education.
It is our intent to ensure that our students who complete their studies become excellent educators in their own right and are able to contribute toward excellence in education throughout the region.

Partnering with accredited educational institutions who provide the best possible on-line courses, we have gathered at the Overstand Learning Hub, one of the most experienced and qualified team of tutors in the field of education.

Molded into our learning support, we provide innovative leading-edge programmes in personal and professional development and unique small group guidance experiences to help bridge the gaps that e-learning students experience with distance learning.

Distance learning with the incredible advantage of having tutors and mentors who invest into the lives of our future teachers and educators.

What drives us

VISION

We intend to become the Learning Center of choice in the Overstrand Region, recognised for our quality of support and the excellence of our tutors, acknowledged for our innovation, and successful as judged by the capability and contribution that our qualifying students bring to the community.

MISSION

The Overstrand Learning Hub will be recognised for promoting quality learning support for student teachers enrolled in Distance Learning programmes by providing face to face collaborative tutorials under the guidance of qualified and experienced tutors and mentors.

PURPOSE

We are committed to reducing inequality in our communities and exist to provide learning support to students at such a level of excellence that those who complete their studies with us will become leaders and influencers in their communities and in our country.

VALUE CENTERED

Through our own commitment, we will create passion in our students. We will help them learn to be and live with others, so that they will be able to explore the self in connection to others and to both the physical and social environments. Thereby they will be able to contribute and add value to our society as intelligent and caring citizens.

Creating value

Value to Students:

The Overstrand Learning Hub’s unique Learner Support bridges the gap that all students experience between access to on-line and e-learning courses and graduating as well-educated and balanced individuals.

Personal and Professional Development and in-depth educational and content guidance in individual and small group sessions with experienced Tutors.

Value to Tutors:

Contributing to the success and personal growth of individual students as part of a team working with advanced innovative approaches to Learner Support.

Value to Community and Volunteers:

Satisfaction of seeing the value you add to a student’s future; the visible growth in their self-esteem and dignity happening as a direct outcome of you being an active part of our team. And being able to recognise the long-term multiplying impact of placing capable change agents in education into your community.

Value to Donors and Funders:

Recognising that your support helps address one of the major challenges in our society – the shortage of genuinely competent teachers able to be leaders and influencers in their communities; this combined with the confidence that comes from supporting an organisation that is well-managed, financially sound and whose academic and learner support methods are based on the most effective modern techniques.

What is The Overstrand Learning Hub?

By Dr Nicoline Rousseau
– Executive Director

The Overstrand Learning Hub (OLH), or The Hub, as it is more commonly referred to, was previously known as the Hermanus Varsity Trust and is situated in the old synagogue at the entrance to Hermanus.

It came into being in 2019 and was initially designed as a learning support centre for a number of post-school accredited courses.In 2021, it was decided to narrow the focus to providing learning support for student teachers enrolled at STADIO, a private tertiary institution that offers distance learning. Visionaries such as John de Gruchy and Theo Krynauw, and the OLH supporters (funders, tutors, management, administrative staff and Friends of OLH) recognised the importance of laying a sound educational foundation for young children and, as a result, are deeply committed to supporting and nurturing the student teachers at OLH in their academic journey towards becoming quality, qualified teachers.

Through the unique model of learning support offered by OLH, every student experiences the best of both worlds. They participate in online lectures from an accredited university with an excellent reputation (STADIO), while also enjoying the benefits of direct contact learning experiences with fellow students and tutors. This ensures a healthy focus on the importance of the practical elements of teaching, integrated with the theoretical aspects of tertiary study.

Students go through a rigorous selection process by OLH and STADIO before being accepted to the course.

Students are not only supported academically, they also receive partial financial support, made possible by the generous donations received from members of the Overstrand community who have opened their hearts to the project.

Furthermore, our generous seed funder has offered students a substantial number of STADIO shares upon graduation. To ensure that the students receive the maximum financial benefit, the overhead costs of the OLH enterprise are kept to a minimum by maintaining a small administrative staff, and by relying on the tutors’ multi-tasking abilities.

With the year-on-year increase in the number of students enrolling for these specific courses offered by STADIO (BEd in Foundation Phase Teaching; Higher Certificate in Pre-School Education; and Post Graduate Certificate in Education), it became necessary to search for additional space.

The OLH holds regular workshops on professionalism and self-development (PPD) to promote the development of excellent teachers These are designed by professionals with a wealth of experience in their particular field to equip the students with invaluable skills as future teachers, in what are becoming increasingly difficult teaching contexts.

Themes highlighted in workshops vary from academic literacy to managing a budget, to motivation through connection, with particular emphasis being placed on holistic and reflective teacher education (more about that in the next newsletter).

In addition, all students are required by OLH to participate in community engagement projects in aftercare facilities, this not only provides them with an opportunity to implement their knowledge but also to give back to the community.

The OLH initiative will not only strengthen education in the Overstrand region but will also be an investment in the broader community and that community’s ability to create a sustainable and prosperous future for “our” children. These teachers will hold the future in their hands.