HEAIDS And TVET Colleges

HEAIDS And TVET Colleges

Previously, the Higher Education and Training HIV/AIDS Program (HEAIDS) aided higher education institutions (HEIs) in strengthening their response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic to protect the health of their students and staff, equip graduates to deal with this unprecedented epidemic in their working lives and provide leadership through research and community service.

In 2014, the HEAIDS initiative was expanded to cover the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sector, which consists of 50 institutions with a combined enrolment of approximately 658,000 students and a staff complement of approximately 16,000.

HEAIDS plans to use the knowledge gathered from its collaboration with the 23 public HEIs to develop HIV interventions in the TVET sector as soon as possible.
The organization is aware, however, that it must take into account the distinctive characteristics of TVET colleges.

The goal of the 2014 survey of students’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours (KAB) was to gain a better understanding of the situation at TVET colleges and to use objective evidence to inform the design of HEAIDS interventions. Furthermore, HEAIDS planned to construct baseline KAB measurements to examine whether the program’s interventions had the desired impact at a later date.

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The HEAIDS Model Of Practice

HEAIDS enables students to assume responsibility for their health by conducting FTF activations at all campuses. The goal is to undertake at least two activations a year on every campus and this target is within reach. Activations differ slightly from campus to campus but each one encompasses:

• Health promotion, including condom promotion.
• Testing and screening for various health risks and health conditions.
• Individual counselling of students with health matters.
• Referral for treatment and care, further testing and medical male circumcision.

Initially, FTF focused exclusively on HIV, TB and STIs but it has begun to include contraceptive services and screening for non-communicable diseases (such as diabetes) and certain forms of cancer. When a university or college requests an FTF activation, this institution becomes the primary implementation partner. However, many other partners in government and civil society are necessary to offer a full package of interventions during the activation

Possible Ways Of Preventing HIV/AIDs By HEAIDS And TVET Colleges

The following are ways of preventing HIV/AIDs ;

Condom distribution:

The use of condoms remains the mainstay of HIV prevention among HEAIDS’ primary beneficiaries. Many students are not yet in stable relationships and research suggests that condoms are most frequently used in new relationships and/or casual sexual encounters. Convenient access and affordability are also important determinants of condom use.

• Peer education training:

In 2016 HEAIDS essentially expanded its investment of time, vitality and assets within the peer education system that supports numerous perspectives of its work. This was not essentially a matter of scaling up preparing courses for peer teachers, but on a very basic level reexamining the model for creating peer teachers, planning their activities and giving them feedback for optimal performance.

• Future Beats Youth Development Program

The Future Beats program utilises community and campus radio stations not only to build information on HIV, TB and other health conditions but also to explore the social and cultural issues that affect significantly health and well-being. Radio presenters and writers are at the heart of this initiative and the program upgrades their journalistic skills so that they have the instruments to deal with sensitive topics. It also deepens their understanding of complex matters, such as HIV-related disgrace and sexual violence.

through talented and delicate radio presenters and writers, standard health procedures can be transformed into locally important talks, utilizing dialects that people feel certain about using. A formal assessment of the program, in terms of its impact on audience members, was conducted during the year and its discoveries are anticipated to be detailed at the South African AIDs Conference in July 2017. Preparatory results suggest radio programs connected to Future Beats were associated with an invigorating dialogue among friends about sexual subjects that are ordinarily maintained a strategic distance from and increasing take-up of administrations at campus and community health facilities.

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HIV/AIDs Curriculum Development

In 2015, HEAIDS made significant progress in the university sector, offering support and developing academic staff skills in integrating HIV-related information into a variety of curricula.
The university initiative made steady progress in 2016 thanks to NSF financing for particular universities and early adopters of HIV curricular integration sharing their techniques with their peers.

There was also progress in the TVET sector, which was based on the findings of a baseline survey conducted the previous year.
The findings of this study helped to establish three work streams for HIV content development: mining and engineering, agricultural, and life orientation.

Because sexuality, health, and HIV are already addressed in life orientation, the strategy is to improve and standardize the content. To do this, HEAIDS created an assessment guideline and a workbook to help colleges improve their HIV-related content teaching in the life orientation curriculum.
Before being accepted nationally, the workbook was tested in three provinces. For level 4 life orientation educators, HEAIDS will provide capacity training in the use of the assessment guideline in early 2017.

To pave the way for the adoption of the two other curricula, a series of intensive discussions with management and appropriate academic personnel at institutions were organized.

The National Science Foundation’s three-year funds for HIV curriculum development have been important to the progress made. They have allowed academic and instructional professionals to communicate and share ideas, giving excitement and movement to a previously stagnant field of labour.

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Members of the HEAIDS Advisory Board

• Dr Max Price (Chairperson), University of Cape Town
• Ms Hellen Ntlatleng (Deputy Chair), South African College Principals Organisation (SACPO)
• Prof Quarraisha Abdool Karim, Centre for AIDS Programme of Research in SA (CAPRISA)
• Dr Ramneek Ahluwalia, HEAIDS Programme Director, Universities South Africa (USAf), (Ex officio)
• Ms Nomampondo Barnabas, International Union against Lung Disease and TB (IUATLD)
• Dr Ahmed Bawa (Chief Executive Officer), Universities South Africa (USAf)
• Ms Steve Letsike, South African National AIDS Council (SANAC)
• Mr Mahlubi Mabizela, Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET)
• Mr Khorombi Madzhie, South African College Principals Organisation (SACPO)
• Ms Vuyokazi Mafilika, Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET

For More Information Visit the HEAIDS Official website. I hope the provided information is helpful, share your thoughts below in the comment section.

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