About Developing People | The Foundation for Professional Development

Developing people

Developing people is core to FPDs mandate as a higher education institution. FPD provides a comprehensive curriculum of courses in management and professional skills development that are customised to the needs of students in sectors, such as: management, health and education. Educational products are presented through formal qualifications, postgraduate qualifications, short courses, in-house courses and conferences.

Our focus on developing people also includes programmes offered by our SHIPS Department designed to hone the skills of school-leavers, graduate students as well as postgraduate students, to enhance their employability through workplace experience opportunities by placing them with the public and private sector institutions.

Departments

The FPD SHIPS Department was established in 2012 to draw from the expertise developed by FPD through the PEPFAR Fellowship Programme in successfully transitioning students from academia to the workplace.

The school of education prides itself in developing courses and selecting a faculty that understands the basic education context and delivering courses that are practical and relevant to the daily responsibilities that teachers, principals and district officials face in their work.

The FPD Business School has a wide selection of management and business courses comprising of formally registered qualifications, international short courses, short learning programmes and distance education. These management courses cater for all levels of students from entry-level managers to highly-experienced executive management.

The FPD School of Health Sciences has been the leader in training healthcare professionals for many years and, take pride in being recognised as the pinnacle product leaders and innovators in the health care industry.

The Conferences & Special Events Department provide a macro meeting and events management service with skilled and experienced staff working on state-of-the-art project management systems. They offer their clients a solid partnership on all aspects of events and conference management, guaranteeing the successful roll-out of projects.

The FPD School for Child Forensic Studies will offer specialised short courses and qualifications to professionals working with child forensic cases, including those in the legal, medical and welfare response professions. Specifically, the school will focus on the interface between the child and the law.

FPD School of Nursing’s overall aim is to prepare nurses to meet the dynamic health needs of the South African community through the developing of clinical knowledge and practical skills of nursing students and practitioners.

The FPD Occupational Health, Safety and Wellness School courses are designed to prepare Healthcare Professionals to face the challenges of Occupational Health and Wellness in the workplace

The FPD School of Information Technology, in partnership with the Foundation for Sustainable Innovation (FSI), specialises in lecturing, interactive courseware, certifications, software licencing, and educator services in the Microsoft technology space.

The FPD Programme Evaluation Department undertakes donor funded and commercial programme evaluations. The Department has since inception conducted evaluations for public and private organizations across Southern Africa. The Department does not follow a “one size fits all” approach to evaluations, but rather offer evaluations that can be customised to its clients’ needs and expectations. The Department has well-established national and international relationships with various universities and organisations and collaborate with its partners to conduct cost effective evaluations. As the Department uses a Rand-based overhead structure, it is able to conduct evaluations at a much lower cost than many international evaluators. The Programme Evaluation Department became commercially viable during 2015.

The School of Natural Sciences (SNS) offers programmes in a wide range of scientific fields covering the basic sciences and many of their applied derivatives. SNS offers a range of programmes that aim to support scientists to excel in an academically challenging environment. The Most of the short learning programmes are endorsed by the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP) for the professional development of natural scientists.