Tahir Hashim wins Sep-Oct but AIPS builds unassailable lead...

ECC takes ACCA tuitions to Mlimani area

Under a special collaboration agreement, East Coast College will now be providing ACCA tuitions to students who are unable to attend classes at the City Centre at the Kilimanjaro Institute of Technology and Management (KITM) in Mlimani Area.

Located at the spacious Mama Ngoma House, KITM attracts students from various nearby and far off areas offering convenient classroom environment and timings.

Classes take off in January, ready for the exams in June 2013.

Congrats Stars!

ECC Visit to AIPS

ECC Director Mohamedarif Suleman, and the then SAC President, Zamena Manekia Manji, in a group photo with the rest of the team, in AIPS Headmistress Mrs Maghimbi's office, during a recent visit to the school.

ECC and AIPS regularly co-operate to promote ideas that benefit young students of this versatile school.

ECC encourages youth skills development

East Coast College regularly organises events and programmes designed to spur skills development in young students.

According to ECC Director Mohamedarif Suleman, part of the mission of the College is to inculcate the development of wholesome skills or personality based social development in students.

One of the most challenging areas that faces the nation is certificate-holding youths who have a stark disconnect with skills and abilities that the market demands of them.  It is only through such efforts that institutions can fulfill their role fully in complementing the vision of the relevant Government organs.

ECC organises campEast twice a year where participants are trained in vital social areas such as Communication Skills. Public Speaking, Drama, Arts and Crafts, Life Skills and Leadership.

Tapya keeps AKPS on top of league table

Congratulations Farshad on your high achievement!

The Director, Management, Teachers, Staff, Advisors and Students of East Coast College extend their heartiest congratulations to former student Farshad Arabgari, for having been selected as the Chief of Protocol (CoP) at the XVI Summit of Non-Aligned movement countries in Tehran, Iran.

As the head of the President;s delegation, Farshad was in charge of everything including planning, scheduling, security, team management, meetings management, airport to airport protocol and Hotel accommodation. 

The College is proud of your achievement and recognizes you as a high standing achiever!

Courses and Careers Day

Challenge of the Week

East Coast College has just announced that in order to encourage academic thought, a series of weekly Challenge questions will be published through the institutions Online Classroom (OCR)'with immediate effect.

According to ECC Director Mohamedarif Suleman, this exercise aligns well with the College philosophy of connecting learning with life but also extends to cover those areas of society who are not classified as students anymore, for one reason or another.  "As a forward-looking college, it is expected of us to be providing the building blocks for the necessary formation of a widely reading and deeply thinking society, and this project boldfaces our intentions on the same." said Suleman.

All one has to do is to send an email to mujeeb.kanji@eastcoastcollege.org and register as a guest with the OCR for free.  Thereafter, questions will be posted time and again.  The fastest response will be recorded as the winner of the week.  Of course, there are no prizes for this yet - but for now, it is for the sake of knowledge!

 Fatma Saleh - an exciting first-time attainment

Fatma Mohamediqbal Saleh of Arusha, a distant learner at East Coast College, has just received her FA1 - Recording Financial Transactions paper results from ACCA, and she has all the reason to be excited.

Compared to a global pass rate of 70% for this paper, Fatma has scored 78% through her commitment and hard work, which any distant learner knows, how important it can turn out to be.  Not only that but whereas only 50% of worldwide candidates pass an ACCA exam when they sit for the paper the first time, Fatma is surely on the better side of these statistics.

Her tutor Rumishael Peter, incidentally just a few days from celebrating one of his own life milestones - that of getting married, could visibly not hide his happiness at this marvellous piece of news.

The Director, management, staff and students congratulate both Fatma and Peter for their exciting first-time attainment, and hope there will be many more reasons to celebrate in the upcoming future.

BTECs – the big benefits

To decide if a BTEC is right for you, you’ll need to know how BTECs differ from other qualifications and what advantages they have.

A practical approach to study

Students have to undertake a number of units for which they present evidence, based on real-life work and studies. This allows them to demonstrate their skill and knowledge in practical situations. If you think you would succeed better working in this way, the BTEC route may be the one to take.

Some students thrive on the pressure of exams, but others often fail to achieve their potential due to worries or nerves. With a BTEC, progress is measured throughout the course, allowing students to gauge their own performance on a continuing basis, just like in a real workplace. As a result, students are more engaged and motivated, as they can see the progress they’ve made through the course rather than waiting until the end to sit an exam.

Keep your options open

There are many options available to school-leavers: further education, vocational degrees and apprenticeships and jobs that offer workplace learning. If you are not sure about the path you will wish to take, the flexibility of BTECs makes them a good choice, as they offer useful practical experience as well as a recognised qualification.

Inspiring confidence

Learning should be fun, not daunting. In our experience, students enjoy BTEC programmes because they can specialise in areas of learning linked with work that they are interested in, like sport or the music business. Courses tap into what they enjoy, feel good at and find familiar.

Students build their confidence because they are developing practical skills that will help them secure a job in the future. Answers to assignments may be in written form, but it’s just as likely they will be in other forms – such as film clips, project proposals, business plans and structured databases. Students are always given clear guidelines so they know what they have to achieve and how to do this.

Rewarding effort

Students will have to meet deadlines set by teachers, but can do this at their own pace rather than having to perform to the time constraints of an exam. Progress is monitored individually by teachers who provide personal support and guidance, helping students develop their learning skills and reach their potential. Learning is progressive, from small-scale and simple topics to larger and more complex themes.

Working together

Teamwork is an important aspect in the world of work. Not surprisingly, it is also a key feature of BTECs. Students work on assignments - such as a group drama production or manager-employee role-play - both individually and in groups. Some students may take time to adapt to these new ways of working, but they gradually understand what is expected of them. They learn even faster if, at Key Stage 4, they take more than one BTEC course, because they make connections and apply approaches to learning from one subject to another.

Fitting study around other things

BTECs are flexible. They can be studied for full time or part time. BTECs can be taken as part of an Apprenticeship programme or alongside work commitments and other qualifications.

Staying up to date

An important consideration when deciding on a course to follow is whether the content is relevant and the course has been revised recently. If it is a BTEC, you can be assured that it has. We are continually developing and updating BTECs in response to the needs and skills required by employers. This ensures that learners gain maximum benefit from their work while qualifying, and that the qualifications stay up to date and relevant. All BTEC qualifications are now developed in co-operation with the relevant Sector Skills Council (SSC), ensuring they meet the needs of employers.

Real Madrid BC topple Cliffton Plaza's 1st day lead, to go top

Real Madrid BC, the only all-boys team featured in the GREAT WEEKENDS Village Walk/InterSchool League (ISL) Quiz, upturned a 6-point gap against hot favourites Cliffton Plaza on the second day of the quiz, in a dramatic last-minute turn around on Sunday, that also saw the Dynamites show a stealthy performance.

It was Hussein Ahmed, who took his team ahead in the last round question when he correctly answered before seeing Team Believe drop their question to hand Real a well deserved lead.

After two days of marathon competition, Real Madrid BC (Raed Ahmed, Hussein Ahmed, Delma Ahmed, all from AK Mzizima Secondary School, and Mark of DIS) stand top with 73.5 points.  On second spot, Believe (Halima Ally, Fatemazehra Rajpar, Ahlam Ally and Najeeba Balouch, all of Al Muntazir Islamic Seminary) with  72 points.

Third in the race is Cliffton Plaza (Zahra Tejani, Aliakber Tejani, Fatema Dewji from AK Mzizima Secondary School and Nayaab Parmar) at 61.5 points ; followed by Dynamites at 58.5 points (Nadiya Kadri, Mahjubah Esmail, Ayman Satchu and Aysha Iqbal, all of Al Muntazir Islamic Seminary).  Holding the tail is MZ (Zameena Somji, Zainab Walji, Mehreen Mushtak and Maham Mushtak, all from Al-MIS) with 55.5 points.

The games continue on Sunday as all teams vie for the top prizes on offer by Samsung, I&M Bank and Flying Horse, amongst others.

All student points are being credited to their league account, which will further give them the boost to become the Brain of ISL 2012.

Village Walk Event: Seven Teams Confirm Participation

Seven teams have so far confirmed their participation in the upcoming Village Walk quiz. According to the organizers, the quiz league will take off on Saturday, 4th August 2012 at 2pm and will involve all the seven teams who will face individual as well as team questions.

Speaking to the contestants at the East Coast College last Saturday, ECC Director, Mohamedarif Suleman, detailed the processes that will be used during the contests.

Teams, all girls, also introduced themselves as follows:
Team One: Zainab Versi, Zainab Sadikali, Aaliya Mawji and Aaliya Panjwani
Team DS: Mubarekah Dharamsi, Shabnam Hemani, Sayyada Master and Sayyada Rajani
Team Two: Zainab Walji, Mehreen Mushtak, Maham Mushtak and Zainab Walji
Team Believe: Ahlam Ibrahim, Halima Tahir, Fatema Zehra Rajpar and Masmuha Ally
Team Three: Nadiya Kadri, Mahjubah Esmail, Ayman Sachu and Aisha Iqbal
Team Four:  Nayaab Parmar, Zahra Tejani, Fatema Dewji and Sausan Karim.
Team Dar Stars: Ridha Ibrahim, Zameena Jalali, Farheen Ibrahim and Aqsa Ahmed.

The InterSchools League (ISL) Committee Chair, Saleha Suleman, has announced a significant climb in the number of participants who have joined the ISL Online Quiz since it was revamped and reintroduced late June this year.

Speaking to a group of SAC members, she reported that from 16 students competing in June, the participation has risen to over 25 in July, with more expected to join in during the August-September period, as some international curriculum schools prepare to reopen.

Students from several leading private schools are amongst the contestants, but Saleha is trying to spread this across to many more schools - both private and public and hopefully those outside Dar es Salaam.  The first two registrations from outside the country - from Madagascar, were received in July.

Reasons for this interest is attributed to the low cost of joining (TShs. 2,000/- per month) and a highly convenient web interface where students can log in at any time of their convenience for any 30 days in a month.  Individual points that are collected are also credited to school accounts.

East Coast joins world's largest journal library

East Coast College joined some of the larger private and public colleges and universities in Tanzania to register with the world's largest virtual journal and publication library JStor.  According to the Academic Coordinator Mujeeb Kanji, registering with this facility, will provide open access to all students at the college to access useful reference material and knowledge sources.

As of now, all ECC students and teachers enjoy access to a large store of information to help them in their assignments and the general understanding of their subject material.  JSTOR (short for Journal Storage) is an online system for archiving academic journal, founded in 1995. It provides its member institutions full-text searches of digitized back issues of several hundred well-known journals, dating back to 1665 in the case of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Membership in JSTOR is held by 7,000 institutions in 159 countries.

Travelstart honours ISL Winners

Official representatives of Travelstart pose for a group picture with winners in the InterSchool Quiz League (ISL) and former Student Affairs Council President Zamena Manekia-Manji at a recent function held at the College.

GREAT WEEKENDS at the Village Walk

The Students Affairs Council (SAC) President Mohamedabbas Jessa has announced the start of GREAT WEEKENDS in collaboration with Cliffton Plaza's Village Walk during three weekends in Ramadhan.  According to Jessa, the event will focus on a public quiz competition as well as a fun treasure hunt, but will also be spiced up with some fun fair and Iftaar Food Sales to help raise funds for lucky families who will receive a surprise smile on the faces on 'Idd Day.

Village Walk is a relatively new shopping centre, located opposite Sea Cliff Village in Masaki area.  The mall  is a great place to hang out and is also a very ideal place to shop in reputable shops stocking brand items.

ECC Director graces AIPS Graduation

Academic International Primary School Graduation Ceremony

ECC Director Mohamedarif Suleman addressing a gathering of parents, teachers and students at the recent graduation ceremony of the Graduation of Grade 7 students at the Academic International Primary School (AIPS).

Suleman, acting as the chief guest, stressed on the importance of modern ways of learning as the only way in which the nation can produce an outstanding and a high performing workforce of the future, before sharing some light moments of advice to the graduands on what awaited them ahead.

East Coast moves to the QCF System

Dr Naji Al Mahdi from the UAE seen here in a light moment with members of the Academic Team at East Coast College, led by the Director and Lead Internal Verifier Mohamedarif Suleman, during the recently held QCF and Portfolio Building Training organised by Edexcel.  Looking on are Mr Deogratius, Mr Omari and Mr Chitenje.

The Qualifications Credit Framework (QCF), is a credit-based system of learning, which makes BTECs more portable and transferrable across a range of exam and certification systems globally.  Edexcel, currently a leader in vocational and applied training, is committed to provided centres with the most contemporary systems of learning.  East Coast College, one of only two centres in the country, has benefitted immensely from this profound change, which offers much convenience to learners.

East Coast College at the Education Fair

East Coast College at the Education Fair

Senior Business Diploma students took centre stage at an Education Fair organised by the Ismailia Community in Dar es Salaam recently.  The fair, which was one of the events organised under the Unity Games at the Diamond Jubilee Hall in Dar es Salaam, saw a good number of students visitng the ECC pavillion, making it one of the busiest around.

Pictured above are Academic Coordinator Mujeeb Kanji and BTEC Business learner Ally Abbas, talking to visitors (standing), while in the background, Events Coordinator Gamdad Khalid, flanked by another student, is providing details to a potential student.

Visitors to the stand were drawn by the College's simple but effective space managed arrangement, as well as well as an impromptu contest to solve Edexcel's Rubik's cube.  A great day indeed, especially for students learning the Unit on Managing Business Events.

BTECs - Widespread recognition

• Edexcel's qualifications are internationally recognized by employers and professional organizations. The recognition of BTEC Higher National Diplomas (HNDs) and BTEC Higher National Certificates (HNCs) is a way for students to prepare for jobs and careers in their chosen field through membership of relevant professional bodies and industry associations.
  
  
  Edexcel students and graduates may be offered exemptions by professional bodies, which are UK based associations, from parts of their own qualifications in relation to membership.
  
  
  The following professional bodies and industry associations recognize BTECs:
  ·                     Association of Accounting Technicolor (AAT)
  ·                     Association of Certified Bookkeepers 
  ·                     Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
  ·                     Association of Financial Controllers and Administrators
  ·                     Association of International Accountants (AIA)
  ·                     British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP)
  ·                     Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIB)
  ·                     Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH)
  ·                     Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)
  ·                     Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)
  ·                     Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA)
  ·                     Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS)
  ·                     Chartered Management Institute
  ·                     Communication, Advertising and Marketing Education Foundation (CAM)
  ·                     Institute of Administrative Management (INSTAM)
  ·                     Institute of Cost and Executive Accountants (ICEA)
  ·                     Institute of Financial Accountants (IFA)
  ·                     Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM)
  ·                     Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX)
  ·                     Institute of Personnel and Development
  ·                     Institute of Transport Administration (IoTA)
  ·                     The Institute of Financial Serivces (IFS)