Senior high school
After 3 years of junior high school, the next step for students in Ghana is to attend senior high school. When our first cohort of graduates reached this stage in 2018, we knew once again that we had to keep supporting them.
All the students had passed the national BECE certificate of education exam at the end of the JHS. This was such a huge achievement for these children who had never even expected to finish primary school.
Awutu Winton School
We encouraged all of our students to take the entrance exam for the EDP Awutu-Winton high school. This is a private senior high school a couple of hours away from Saltpond that we’ve had a relationship with for several years now. The school is also funded by a UK-based charity and follows a very similar ethos to SEP. They offer senior high school education to high achieving students from disadvantaged backgrounds in a supportive and nurturing environment.
Two of our students passed the tough entrance exams and have been attending EDP since September 2018. The rest of our graduates were allocated to various government senior high schools near Saltpond.
Apprenticeships
At SEP, we’re very aware that gaining the BECE educational qualification is so important but that 4 years of SHS might not be right for every student. That’s why in 2019, we decided to start a vocational apprenticeship sponsorship scheme. We want to support our graduates to have lifelong skills and trades that will support them and their community, so we’re currently in the process of building relationships with local tradespeople in Saltpond - tailors, mechanics, carpenters, basket-weavers - who might be able to take on some of our graduates as apprentices in the future. Watch this space for updates.