Jet.org.za
Title
JET Education Services - community development South Africa, adult education, school development, workforce development
Description
Working in four areas where it supported over 400 NGOs working in teacher development, early childhood development, adult basic education and youth development, JET adopted a sectoral approach to grant making, characterised by the establishment of quality assurance mechanisms for grantees within each sector, and periodic sector-wide evaluations.
In addition to these grant-making activities, JET began to diversify its services following the election of South Africa’s first democratic government in 1994. Thus, it began to offer project management services to donors, generally in partnership with the national and provincial Departments of Education. Through these programmes, the Trust currently manages funds totalling some R400 million from a variety of local and offshore donors, on projects in the fields of school development, further education, adult education and workforce development, higher education, and youth development. Research and evaluation are integral to JET’s work in all these sectors.
The formation of JET in 1992 was spearheaded by the Private Sector Initiative (PSI), a consortium of 20 leading South African companies, with a commitment of R500 million over a period of five years. The PSI joined forces with community organisations, including the leading political parties, labour unions, business and education organisations, recognising that although coming from different perspectives all these organisations shared a common goal: to improve the quality of education and to transform the existing system into one more equitable for all South Africa’s citizens. Thus JET was established as a partnership that would co-ordinate the efforts of different sectors of society within an overall framework for fundamental change in the education and training system.
