Vega creates purpose through Generation V

A unique concept called ‘Generation V’ (or Generation Vega) was dreamed up by a group of students from Vega School, an educational brand of The Independent Institute of Education (The IIE), as they pondered the legacy that their education would leave on them.

The brainwave came during a Vega Brand Challenge where a number of students debated the uniqueness of the Vega Way of learning. They decided to form a loose association, Generation V, to symbolise this new form of education as differentiating from how things had been done in the past. Christy Addy, a graduate from The IIE Vega School of 2015, explains that what the team ultimately came up with was unexpected, though part of the Vega Way is to expect the unexpected.

“The campaign speaks not to the external market but to students themselves. It reinforces that our role in education is to push boundaries. After all, we’re a generation of thinkers.  Generation V encourages everything that a Vega education should stand for: out-of-the-box thinking; shunning the status quo or conventional wisdom; and a platform for students to express their unique individuality and creativity. It defines a way of thinking rather than a timeline or age-based generation.” The Vega Brand Challenge mimics projects undertaken in the real world as students work on actual brand assignments for companies. Many of these are major South African and international brands.

Vega students have come to see themselves as a group, that in later years will be known as a collective. To the casual observer, it can seem like “playing”, and indeed the Brand Challenge can be a game. It is a game that instils highly practical workplace skills. One student, Chante Ceronio explains how Vega “teaches you to be conceptual and to play a big role in a project. It sets you up for the real world”. Organic education enables students’ natural curiosity to develop and to flower into a high level of creativity. As a result, learning occurs quickly and efficiently. The Vega Way employs activities which may be fairly normal. The difference lies in the ‘intention’ – nothing is done for form’s sake, but by looking at the impact of the action. The typical result, and what binds together Generation V’ers is that these actions are done differently.

They help students find out more about themselves and give greater significance to every aspect of their course. “I would define Generation V as a group of people having critical minds and a passion for all the goodness in the world,” explains Ceronio. Vega’s model of education is pivotal to the discovery of purpose. It equips students with the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions and be more conscious of how those choices impact the people and things around them. To find out how you can register at Vega for the mid-year intake visit www.vegaschool.com.