Midlands Community College is a vibrant non-profit educational centre situated in Nottingham Road in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. The College was established in 1981 in response to the need to provide quality education to all South Africans.

We help very young children, youth and adults to realise their full potential through two Centres of Excellence: Early Childhood Development and Maths, Science and Technology. Both centres are integral to supporting the goals of the National Development Plan (2030) through enriching early learning programmes and supporting young people becoming active, successful learners of maths and science. Midlands Community College (MCC) is a registered non-profit company that was established in 1981. It is situated in Nottingham Road in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, providing subsidised education and skills development opportunities to disadvantaged South Africans. The College was conceptualised by local activist, Pauline Greene with the land donated by Dr Peter Brown.

The College provides access to quality education focused on two centres of excellence, namely: • Maths, Science and Technology (MST) programme • Early Childhood Development (ECD) programme In the first area, projects include a unique one-year long residential second chance programme for Grade 12 students to upgrade their Grade 12 results in Maths, Physical Science, English First Additional Language or Life Sciences and has been implemented successfully since 1999. The objective is for students to achieve significant improvement in order to gain access to degrees or diploma courses at tertiary level the following year. In addition to a focused academic programme, students receive wrap-around support, the opportunity to gain computer and other critical skills and career guidance.

Another longstanding project, initiated in 2002 is the Schools’ Mobile Science Laboratory Project. It was among the first of its kind in KZN. 6 trained laboratory technicians visit 80 disadvantaged, rural schools that lack science laboratories, facilities and equipment. Educators and learners from Grades 10 12 are assisted with the curriculum-aligned practical science experiments required for each grade. The Saturday School and Holiday Camps enable Grade 12 learners enrolled in schools in the surrounding area to benefit from additional tuition and support in Maths and Science. ECD projects include the ETDP SETA accredited Level 4 Further Education and Training Certificate in ECD, a comprehensive package of short courses, including the ICDL accredited Digital Citizen Plus Certificate course; an Orientation to ECD; Caring for Babies and Toddlers; The First 1000 Days and Creating Learning Resources. MCC also provides opportunities for young children and their primary caregivers to benefit from a home visiting ECD project in the communities of Bruntville and Mpophomeni.

The College supports and empowers resource constrained ECD centres to develop holistically into sustainable providers of quality ECD. As there are many centres in the communities surrounding the College that lack adequate resources, MCC uses a range of integrated strategies to provide educational resources and toys to these ECD centres. These include: fixed and mobile toy libraries, the mobile toy library experience and music as well as maths workshops for ECD practitioners.