A simple phone call between two digital education organisations in 2020 laid the foundation for what they say are several innovations in the health and safety-related training courses they have co-created over the past year.
The Dekra Institute of Learning (IOL) – a local division of global parent company DEKRA – initiated discussions with Western Cape-based AfricaX Academy in February 2020, regarding a potential collaboration. Subsequently, the two companies formed an online training partnership, which has seen them ultimately achieving a trio of impressive online training world firsts.
These include the co-creation of the “Big Five” of health and safety online training courses: Safety Health Environment and Quality (SHEQ); Compensation for Occupation Injuries and Diseases (COIDA); Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (HIRA); Legal Liability and Ergonomics.
In addition, the Dekra IOL and AfricaX collaboration has produced the first digital, fully accredited ergonomics online training course in sign language for the hearing impaired, developed with the support of deaf skills development training body eDeaf. There are also online training audio options in five popular pan-African languages.
These courses form part of a 12-tier “ladder of learning” digital offering developed by AfricaX, and supported by a local and global network of partners, offering over 4,500 courses in 37 countries, with input from more than 140 institutions, including Harvard and Cambridge.
The online health and safety training courses were co-created and completed over several months this year, in line with Dekra’s stringent global safety and quality standards, and are locally QCTO-accredited.
“From an initial discussion with AfricaX on one online learning topic, we have now developed a synergy and opportunity for something far greater than what we originally had in mind,” said Christopher Mörsner, Head of the Training Division at Dekra Industrial’s Institute of Learning.
“This collaborative understanding is a powerful resource to draw upon – and a very useful tool to have in monitoring the sector and our impact therein to determine whether our mutual training goals are being achieved,” he said.
Jessica Rees-Jones, AfricaX founder and Chief Executive Officer, agreed. “What started out as a phone call of enquiry has resulted in co-creating world-class digital educational content – and resulted in a phenomenal training trajectory,” she said.
