At Cida City Campus, subjects are geared to the marketplace. Four to six hours a day are spent on subjects known at Cida as "the knowledge component".
They include: four years of accountancy, marketing, finance, investments and asset management, entrepreneurship, business communication, human resource management, strategy, management and leadership; two years of mathematics, operations management, public administration and economics; and one year of statistics and commercial law.
If necessary, lessons are supplemented by a strong remedial element for students weak in maths and English or basic accounting for beginners.
But the knowledge component is only one aspect of the curriculum.
"Cida's approach to education is holistic," says Cida CE Taddy Blecher.
"It is designed to develop students' full potential and to turn them into leaders."
The curriculum has six additional components: skills, values, action, personal development, the Extranet (or community upliftment projects) and sport & recreation.
- Cida sees skills acquisition as critical in a rapidly changing business environment where most people change careers at least once.
"Recent research by the SA Graduates Development Association showed the main reason university graduates can't get jobs after completing their studies is that they lack skills and experience," says Blecher.
In daily skills sessions, students are introduced to a range of generic, professional and life skills. They learn how to learn, how to lead, entrepreneurship, management, communication, problem solving, how to use computers and technology.
Cida educators emphasise the need to develop students' ability to think analytically and creatively. Their goal is to turn university-level students into lifelong learners, capable of adjusting to career challenges.
- The values component encourages professionalism, ethical behaviour and constructive attitudes in the workplace.
"Values" embraces everything from dress code to sharing, respect and commitment. "These values will develop professionals who provide superior customer service and quality performance, as well as graduates who are equipped to work in all areas of the economy," says Blecher.
"Cida teaches students the issues of integrity, compassion and wisdom in business. These themes are worked into every class, in the form of punctuality, doing homework, learning to work in a team and developing team leadership through syndicate work," says Jackie Lord, first-year education co-ordinator.
- The action component extends to students running the campus. They do everything from cooking and cleaning to administration, computer maintenance, training, admissions, registration, marketing and market research.
Another element of the action component is student participation in internships, part-time jobs, vacation jobs and learnerships.
There is also an element called the Extranet. Students work during their vacations, upgrading the skills of people in their own communities and earning academic credits for their efforts.
- Development of human potential is an important component. First and last lessons each day are spent on self-management which " helps develop people in a profound way, reducing stress and enabling them to demonstrate their potential effectively, through conventional study," says Cida director Conrad Mhlongo.
"Cida uses a consciousness-based education approach, which has been shown to have highly significant educational outcomes worldwide. With this component in the education, the student learns to know himself or herself at the deepest levels within. This includes the acquisition of transcendental meditation techniques."
- Celebration of life ends each working week. For two to seven hours, students participate in sport, cultural and recreational activities which include gardening, baking and mountain climbing.
"There are more than 50 clubs and societies," says Blecher. "They range from soccer and cricket to drama, dancing, debating and poetry and all are managed by the students and designed to express love of life and engagement in life."
