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Gain valuable experience when you join a teaching and community development apprenticeship in South Africa’s famous city of Cape Town. Plan and deliver a range of educational lessons as well as leadership and teamwork skills, then apply it in educare centres and township schools to provide lower income household children with a quality education.
Join our international team in the spectacular city of Cape Town and work with children from the local townships while developing teaching experience and qualifications on this apprenticeship. The apprenticeship begins with a 12 week volunteer project, where you will learn how to plan and deliver a range of educational programmes in local township schools and educare centres, gaining experience in teamwork and leadership. You will get the opportunity to try all of our projects in Gordon’s Bay, including teaching, early childhood development and sports as well as women’s empowerment.
After successfully completing this phase you will then undertake a 12 week work placement where you will further develop your teaching skills and assist in the running of educational programmes (including child care, sports, and creative play) for young children. You will work with a range of partner organisations or assist the GVI team in the operation and management of our project. With both pathways, you will work alongside professional community development teams, gaining valuable experience throughout.
Depending on where you are placed you may be expected to assist in the following areas: outdoor exercises and games, arts and crafts, music and drama activities, storytelling, health workshops, numeracy and literacy, and sports. Please note that it is not possible for you to choose exactly where you would like to be placed. We hope that you will be flexible and open-minded enabling us to place you wherever the need is greatest at the time and wherever we feel that your skills, interests and experience can be best utilised.
*Please Note: During holiday periods, all participants will join Cape Town’s school holiday program. During the school holiday period, all of GVI’s projects come together to work at a local library to provide a safe and educational space for children of all ages. Activities here possibly include a wide range, from tutoring, reading and arts & crafts, as well as sports and wellbeing. When possible to do so, the team also runs soup kitchens on the ground in the community.
This internship is specifically useful for someone who has or is actively studying the below subject areas at school, university or college, or has an interest in these subject areas.
General | |
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Food | |
Safe and basic accommodation (usually shared) | |
Airport pick up (unless stated) | |
All project equipment | |
24-hour in-country support from local staff | |
24-hour emergency desk | |
GVI Experiences |
Activities | |
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Sustainable project work | |
Data collection and research | |
Leadership responsibilities | |
Personal project |
Placement | |
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12-week placement |
Mentorship | |
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Weekly group sessions | |
Internship supervisor guidance |
Pre-program training | |
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Pre-departure webinar | |
Pre-departure training (online) | |
University of Richmond endorsed specialisation course | |
University of Richmond endorsed leadership course |
Welcome training | |
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GVI welcome presentation | |
Health & safety | |
Local culture & environment | |
UN SDGs | |
Impact & ethics | |
Child protection |
Advanced leadership training | |
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Personal development record | |
Project planning and management |
Fast track training | |
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Self-leadership and well-being | |
Project management | |
Ethical engagement | |
Measuring impact | |
Developing intercultural competence | |
Effective communication (storytelling and social media) | |
Team management | |
Participant journey | |
Off-site safety management | |
Safety management in practice (OSSM part 2) | |
Standards, policies and procedures | |
Emergency first response (select hubs) |
Career services | |
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University of Richmond careers course | |
Career coaching sessions (x2) | |
Career guarantee | |
LinkedIn reference – upon request | |
Job portal | |
Preferential recruitment on GVI positions |
Certificates | |
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Program certificate | |
University certificate – specialisation (University of Richmond) | |
University certificate – leadership (University of Richmond) | |
University certificate – careers (University of Richmond) | |
Fast track training certificate |
Not included |
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Flights |
International and domestic airport taxes |
Medical and travel insurance |
Visa costs |
Police or background check |
Personal items and toiletries |
Additional drinks and gratuities |
The GVI Cape Town base is situated in Muizenberg, a colourful beachside town in South Africa’s Western Cape province. Approximately 30 minutes away from the city centre, Muizenburg is in the Cape Peninsula, home to some of South Africa’s most famous beaches. “Surfer’s Corner” is considered one of the best surfing spots in Cape Town – some even view it as the birthplace of surfing in South Africa. With beautiful mountains as a backdrop and the beach on your doorstep, there is little that Muizenberg lacks in terms of world-class scenery and views. There are plenty of local shops, restaurants, bars and cafés to explore and enjoy. This is not a remote location, and other amenities are easily accessible nearby, but being a small beach community it has a laid-back, small-town feel.
We want you to make the most of the chance to live in – and contribute towards – the most diverse and unique wildernesses and communities on earth. Introducing GVI Experiences – immersive adventure, cultural and wellness activities exclusive to GVI that have been specially designed in collaboration with our local partners to support and stimulate sustainable economic development.
Enhance your impact. Expand your adventure. Explore your world.
By joining a GVI program, you not only have the opportunity to work in collaboration with local communities, you also get the chance to explore the surrounding area or venture further to see what else the region has to offer on weekends.
Our field staff are a great source of advice on local travel options. Many participants choose to travel before or after their experience, solidifying friendships made on the program.
Engaging with a new context teaches global awareness, adaptability and critical thinking – skills highly valued in today’s world. Cultural immersion is encouraged, and there are many activities to enjoy during your free time or before and after your program. Please note, these suggestions aren’t included in the program fee and are at your own expense.
Cape Town and its coastal regions offer an array of shark cage diving options – where you’ll possibly spot great white sharks, as well as other sea life.
If you’d like to find out what the experience of joining a GVI project is really like, simply contact us and we’ll put you in touch with one of our many Alumni.
We’ll try to match you to an Alum based on your location, nationality, age, stage of academic career, gender, and program interests. This allows you to gain insights into the experience that is most relevant to you.
Depending on your location you might be able to speak to an Alum over the phone or online, or meet up with them face-to-face at a coffee shop nearby. We also run a series of small events around the world where you can speak to GVI Alumni, Ambassadors and staff members.
‘If only every student could do this. It changes your life in all the right ways,’ says Chris Heritage, parent of Luke Heritage, one of our teen volunteers who has participated on two GVI programs, one in Costa Rica and another in South Africa.
We are a parent-run organisation that is incredibly serious about health and safety, and increasing the impact, as well as the long-term career benefits of our programs. Our programs help young people develop the skills to select a career path that is personally fulfilling, and live a life aligned to the well-being of our planet and the global community.
GVI is a proud member of the Gap Year Association.
Ken and Linda Jeffrey, whose son Sam volunteered with GVI in Thailand, talk about how the experience affected Sam. He also went on to volunteer with GVI again in South Africa. ‘I know it sounds like a cliche but in a sense, he did go away as a boy and he came back as a young man. Both of us could recommend GVI without any hesitation to any other parent thinking about exploring an opportunity for their children to explore the world and to see different parts of it.’
Download the Parent Pack and learn more about:
Our staff: All our projects are run by staff, selected, vetted, trained, and managed by our central office.
Health and safety: Our safety practices include a child and vulnerable adult protection policy and high participant ratios.
Staying in touch: See what’s happening on base, by following a hub’s dedicated Facebook page.
Free parent consultations: We would love to talk to you about exciting opportunities available for your child.
When it comes to support, we ensure that each participant is provided with unparalleled, 360 degree support, from your initial contact with the GVI Family, all the way through your program, and even after, as you become part of the GVI Alumni Team.
As part of this promise, we will ensure, whenever possible, that one of our dedicated staff will be available to meet you at the airport. In most locations, we also set up a Whatsapp group to help with managing airport arrivals.
We will arrange with you prior to your departure that, should you arrive in the agreed upon pick up window, a member of our staff will be there to welcome you, easily identifiable in a GVI t-shirt or holding a GVI sign and wearing a friendly smile.
This means there will be someone there to greet you as you land, and from there you will be transported to your GVI base to start your adventure and meet the rest of your team.
Please note that if you use this service delivered by Student Universe and / or if you buy your ticket through this portal you are agreeing to the Student Universe Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. Your agreement regarding flights will be between you and Student Universe or as per their terms and conditions.
As GVI is providing this portal as a service we are not responsible for the accuracy of this site.
We are also not responsible for any loss, damage (including loss of profits or consequential damages), injury, illness, harm or death in relation to your flight and travel arrangements.
All of our programs have short-, mid- and long-term objectives that align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). This enables us to report on our collaborative impact across the world in a streamlined manner, measuring which UN SDGs we are making a substantial contribution to. Furthermore, this will help our local partners and communities measure and visualise their contribution to the UN SDGs.
Prior to your arrival on base, you will be educated about the UN SDGs. Then once you arrive on base, you’ll learn about the specific goals we have in this particular location, our various objectives, and also clarification of how your personal, shorter-term involvement contributes to these.
Our aim is to educate you on local and global issues, so that you continue to be an active global citizen after your program, helping to fulfil our mission of building a global network of people united by their passion to make a difference.
Our Cape Town-based community development programs involve researching, planning, and delivering classes, as well as practical skills workshops in the local community alongside our local partners.
We also work closely with our primary partner and their network of organisations on capacity building. In doing so, we contribute to these organisations’ long-term viability, which means the sustainable provision of their support and services to the community.
Education Project
In South Africa, primary school education poses a real challenge to young students who do not come from English speaking households or have had minimal exposure to the English language within their community. Many schools teach exclusively in English (or Afrikaans) resulting in some learners falling behind in their schooling from an early age. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), 60% of South African students currently enrolled in grade 1 will not complete grade 12. Our education project aims to improve the students’ chance of completing secondary school and decrease the likelihood of them falling behind or dropping out of school.
We assist in mentoring and tutoring local learners of all ages across a range of subjects, including life skills, general skills development, literacy, numeracy and computer literacy. We provide support to at-risk students in local communities through direct in-classroom learning, working with teachers and students, and indirect lessons at our partner organisation’s facilities within the communities. Another element of our lessons is basic health and well-being, which sometimes includes physical education and sports. Our project also aims to provide our partner organisations with additional knowledge and skills which they can use to address the educational issues faced by the youth in the communities in which we work.
Public Health Project
TB and HIV/AIDS continue to be major public health issues in South Africa, particularly in low-income and under-resourced communities. Lack of contraception and reproductive healthcare are also prevalent issues. As a result, teen pregnancies are common, and the infant mortality rate in South Africa is among the highest in the world (bottom 25% of countries). While there are available public health services, many community members face barriers to accessing them, such as lack of accurate knowledge on these issues and how to prevent or manage them, lack of information around what services and resources are available, how to apply for or access assistance and support programs, and lack of funds to cover transport to and from medical facilities.
Our project is focused on raising awareness and assisting with educating adolescents from age 12 upwards on sexual and reproductive health issues, the risks of STIs and how to protect yourself from contracting them, teen pregnancy, and local health issues such as TB and HIV/AIDS. We aim to equip young community members with an “asset map” so that they are aware of all local resources and how they can access them, regardless of their situation or circumstances.
Gender Equality Project
Gender-based violence has been called South Africa’s “second pandemic”. It is estimated that more than 53% of South African women have experienced gender-based violence. This is a complex issue with many contributing factors. While our gender equality programs do not specifically focus on gender-based violence, our partner organisation has established facilities exclusively for young women, where they can learn, grow and develop in a safe environment.
We work with our partner whose aim is to empower local women through knowledge and confidence building, and giving them access to support services and skills that can assist with removing themselves from unhealthy circumstances. For women on a path towards graduation or looking for employment we provide support by assisting with computer literacy and skills development, maths tutoring, job searches, resumé writing for school graduates, and workshops on gender roles and stereotypes.
Gender equality and public health are often intertwined as public health services may have discriminatory practices or lack of resources that disproportionately affect women – resulting in an overlap between this project and our public health project. We focus on raising awareness on pertinent topics that affect women, including reproductive health issues, STIs and contraception. We equip women with the same type of “asset map” we create for our public health project – giving them access to the support that they need and the confidence to feel comfortable enough to do so.
GVI Cape Town long-term objectives:
1. Improve English language skills of the youth within the community – with the goal of reducing the failure and drop-out rate in primary schools.
2. Raise awareness and educate the youth on public health issues, and improve access to support and resources.
3. Promote gender equality in the community through education and training.
4. Empower local women through knowledge learning and skills training and assist them on their path to graduation or employment. Raise awareness about prevalent health issues and ensure they have access to the relevant support services and resources.
5. Increase in-country capacity by providing our partners with skills development training that will assist them in achieving their objectives.
The best decisions in international development and conservation cannot be made without accurate and up-to-date data or informed research. Our many field teams around the world collaborate with local and international partners to analyse data and draw conclusions. In addition, many of our participants have used research they have collected on their various GVI projects to complete their Masters, Doctorate, or postdoctoral studies. We also run a fellowship program which connects postdoctoral researchers at globally-respected universities with our many sustainable development programs around the world to support their research and ensure continuous improvement of our best practices on base.
Below is a list of core ethics and best practices we believe are essential to the operation of high quality, ethical volunteer and sustainable development programs. We believe that all responsible volunteer and sustainable development operations should focus upon these principles. If you are considering volunteering, these are some of the key considerations you should question, to ensure that your time and money contributes towards positive change.
We want to constantly develop our own understanding of ethical best practice. In so doing, we aim to provide an exemplary industry standard for other education institutions, international development organisations, and social enterprises. Our Badge of Ethics stands for the drive to always do good, better. Find out more, click on the Badge below.
We aim to design all our projects in collaboration with local organizations and communities and ensure that they are locally driven.
We aim to clearly define short-, mid-, and long-term objectives with sustainable outcomes for all our projects.
We aim to track, record, and publish the impact of each of our projects.
We aim to build in-country capacity by assisting local organizations in becoming self-sustaining.
For each local organization we work with, we aim to have a plan in place for withdrawing support responsibly.
We aim to ensure that every participant is assigned a clear role and that they are fully trained and supported to carry out their work by specialized staff.
In all our actions we aim to respect the skills and efforts of all and seek to protect the rights, culture and dignity of everyone who engages with GVI.
We work to ensure that credit for the results of any project, along with any data collected, research conducted, or Intellectual Property developed, remains the property of local organizations.
We do not condone and aim to withdraw support of orphanages and residential care centers.
We will live by our Child Protection and Vulnerable Adult policies.
As an organization, GVI is committed to striving toward best practice, and to educating both our potential participants, our partners, and the world at large about them. Both the volunteering and sustainable development sectors are increasingly, and rightly, under scrutiny. Many recent local and global articles highlight poor practices and questionable ethics. GVI is widely recognized for striving to apply global best practice in the volunteering, education and sustainable development sectors throughout our operations by reputable organizations such as ChildSafe.
However, global best practice is always evolving and we dedicate both time and resources to engage with internationally respected experts and learn from the latest research to ensure our programs both fulfil their potential to create maximum positive impact, and minimise their potential to create unintentional negative impact. Along with and as part of the sustainable development and volunteering community, we are constantly learning and applying this learning to practice. We do not always get everything right, but we seek feedback from our community members, partners, participants and our staff, and react accordingly. We know are already doing a great job, and feedback we have received confirms this, but we aim to do even better and are continuously refining our operations to improve upon our already excellent reputation.
We don’t support the use of wild animals for entertainment purposes. This includes riding animals, having them perform tricks, feeding or bathing them or getting close to them to take photos
We don’t encourage, support or allow the rearing of “orphaned” wild baby animals kept at a “sanctuary”. The conservation value of these types of programs is negligent and would only ethically be used in extremely rare cases
When wild animals are restricted for conservation purposes we follow the guidelines of Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA), approved by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.
We ensure that the Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare are followed. These include the freedom to express normal behaviour and freedom from distress, discomfort, hunger, thirst, fear, pain, injury or disease.
We ensure that conservation efforts are also always locally led, that community needs are front-and centre of any conservation effort and that our participants, projects and partners work to increase local community engagement in local conservation efforts.
We don’t offer any veterinary programs or animal rescue and rehabilitation programs. We don’t allow participants to do any work they would not be able to do in their home country.
We don’t support or allow participants to work in institutional residential care facilities, also known as orphanages. We partner with ReThink Orphanages and Freedom United.
Our Child and Vulnerable Adult Protection Policy requires all our staff and participants to complete a criminal background check and to learn why you shouldn’t reveal a child’s identifying factors in photographs. We support the ChildSafe Movement.
We don’t offer any programs where our participants engage in medical treatment. This is because our participants aren’t typically qualified to do this work and would therefore not be able to do this work in their home country. Our participants only assist with public health programs.
We don’t offer any programs where our participants work directly with people with disabilities. This is because our participants aren’t typically qualified to do this work and would therefore not be able to do this work in their home country.
A GVI program is an investment in your career. No matter which you choose, you will be working toward improving your employability by mastering new social skills, gaining further technical expertise and earning qualifications in many cases. Most of our staff are, in fact, GVI Alumni, and we have helped many of our Alumni discover, move toward, and earn their own personal dream jobs. Each program includes introductory workshops, ongoing presentations, as well as on-the-ground professional support provided by our very own trained staff members. In addition, our training programs are critical for helping us to ensure the long-term impact of our sustainable development projects around the world.
Learn about the importance of child and vulnerable adult protection best practices and how to apply them while on project.
Introduction to the history and evolution of sustainable development, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and how these related to your project work.
Learn about our country locations and further opportunities available to you during or after your program.
Learn strategies for reflecting on, developing and facilitating educational programs. Learn how to plan engaging, meaningful lessons, and how to manage a classroom.
Career paths in social and environmental impact are not as well-established as in other fields. That’s why we’ll provide our interns who have successfully completed their program with our Careers in Sustainable Development course. In this course, you’ll learn about current and emerging opportunities in a range of sectors, allowing you to make the best decision about your future.
This online course, valued at £295, is included in all internships. Full course details can be found here.
Leadership is a critical skill set for anyone looking to make an impact or drive sustainable development. Develop your own leadership style and learn how to set achievable objectives, give effective feedback and manage conflict successfully. After successfully completing the course, which you have the option of doing prior to your in-country program, you’ll receive a certificate from the University of Richmond.
This online course, valued at £295, is included in all volunteering programs. Full course details can be found here.
In this course, you’ll explore the most common pitfalls of community development initiatives so that you can avoid them. You’ll also learn how to carry out community development work effectively and ethically and how local context impacts program development. After successfully completing the course, which you have the option of doing prior to your in-country program, you’ll receive a certificate from the University of Richmond.
This online course, valued at £295, is included in all volunteering programs. Full course details can be found here.
We won’t sugarcoat it — traveling abroad is usually a complex process that carries an element of risk. But this is exactly why we’re passionate about providing extensive support throughout the process as well as the highest safety standards during the in-country phase. We believe that volunteering abroad should not only be impactful, but an enjoyable experience that carries as little risk as possible. This is exactly how we’ve been able to maintain our reputation as the most highly respected volunteering organisations in the sector over the past two decades.
Make the most of our unique programs with these exclusively curated local adventure and wellness experiences.