An agriculture college started by the farming community has won another top award. This time around, AGRICOLLEGES international (ACI) was honoured for its outstanding community service by the Tzaneen Chamber of Commerce.
The Limpopo-based business chamber says it has the greatest respect for the work done by ACI. “I am incredibly impressed with the efforts from both Wynand Espach and Howard Blight to uplift our community in all that they do,” remarked Donovan Lewis, chairperson of the Tzaneen Chamber of Commerce.
“Our community has great respect for them and we are very proud to affiliate ourselves with ACI. We support their mission to make education and agricultural learning opportunities more accessible.”
ACI is a modern, cloud-based online learning agri-institution, using world-class technology as a platform to address the agricultural education gap in Africa and beyond. It provides students with affordable, accessible and industry-relevant education and training in the fields of agriculture and related agri-industries.
New cannabis and hemp course
ACI is known for its skills and learning opportunities to students in South Africa, Africa and across the globe, boasting students and alumni from 36 different countries.
Other accolades include being named as one of the 30 Most Inspiring Digital Innovations of 2020 by a Dutch NGO and reaching the semi-final stages of the Futures Project competition in Germany.
Also, it was announced as the Best Global Agricultural e-Learning Platform as well as the Best Agricultural Education Start-up in the 2021 African Business Excellence Awards.
Howard Blight, the founder and chief executive of ACI, says, “We appreciate this award from the Tzaneen Chamber of Commerce. Online learning has stepped up to the challenge of a modern world – and so has agriculture. Put the two together and it’s a winning recipe to study agriculture online and help improve food security in a world that has an ever-growing number of mouths to feed.”
ACI’s latest offering is a one-year plant production in cannabis and hemp course presented in partnership with the Cheeba Academy. The course is set to be launched in April this year. This follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent State of the Nation Address in which he recognised that the hemp and cannabis sector has the potential to create more than 130 000 new jobs.
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