The Media24 Academy won high praise this week when it was recognised by the FP&M Seta as a Best Practice Skills Development Provider for Learning Programmes in rural areas and townships.
The inaugural awards ceremony, hosted by the Seta at a high-profile event in Johannesburg, recognised the projects that “showcase excellence” and deliver “high-impact results in a stringent compliance environment”. The winning projects were selected from some 91 entries from different organisations.
“Media24 is on a journey to transform the media,” said Media24’s head of corporate affairs Neo Momodu. “It has always been our culture to invest in the empowerment of our people and through our training and skills development initiatives we are contributing to the socio- economic upliftment of South Africans, with particular emphasis on people from disadvantaged communities.”
The winning training programme was an initiative of the Media24 Academy and received R3.3m in funding from the FP&M Seta. It saw over 200 independent community newspaper publishers in townships and rural areas receive a series of accredited digital publishing courses over a six-month period. The project, built alongside the Association of Independent Publishers (AIP), is part of Media24’s ongoing investment in skills development with independent publishers and is central to the company’s drive to actualise the recommendations of the Print and Digital Media Transformation Task Team (PDMTTT).
“This award is wonderful recognition for a project that has made an important contribution to transforming the media landscape in South Africa,” said Academy principal, Adam Cooke. “I think the programme worked because we have built strong relationships across the sector and we have always been clear that our aim is to equip publishers with the tools they need to embrace the convergence of digital and print media.”
