OVERVIEW
Education and training Skills development programmes are expanding. SECTOR INSIGHT UFS researchers are doing advanced work on protein structure prediction.
The CUT Hotel School has a new roof. Credit: CUT/Sebedisan Group
A
n extensive Skills Development Programme is giving young people skills and work experience in a variety of fields. The Provincial Government of the Free State spent about R120-million training 3 367 people in 2020/21 on various skills programmes. These were supported by placements with government departments and with private businesses: 120 unemployed graduates were specifically supported by the province on stints at companies. Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) are involved in the programmes which include graduate internships, learnerships, short-skills programmes and workintegrated learning methods. The province’s road-building unit will link up with T VET college graduates to provide specific work training. A national policy of promoting training in critical trades has been adopted. Two of the three campuses of Flavius Mareka TVET College are designated Centres of Specialisation, for electrical work at Sasolburg and plumbing at Kroonstad. The Mphohadi campus of the college is also in Kroonstad. The Free State has about 14 000 students at four Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, taught by 400 lecturers. All of the colleges have multiple sites. Maluti TVET College in Phuthaditjhaba, for example, offers classes at eight sites. Motheo TVET College operates in Bloemfontein and Thaba Nchu, while Goldfields TVET College is headquartered in Welkom with some classes offered in Thabong and a satellite campus at Virginia (Meloding).
FREE STATE BUSINESS 2022
44
The University of the Free State has 158 researchers rated by the National Research Foundation (NRF), two A-rated scientists and five tier-one SARChi research chairs. The university has 18 international research partnerships and produces an average of 240 postgraduate research degrees every year. A team of undergraduates from the UFS Department of Animal Sciences won the 2021 national quiz held at the 52nd congress of the South African Society for Animal Science (SASAS). At the same event, Andries van der Merwe, a postgraduate student, received the SASAS Student Postgraduate Merit Award for exceptional academic achievement. Dr Sinobongo Mdyogolo, a PhD student, was presented with the SASAS Bronze Medal in respect of her PhD achievements in the research and technology transfer categories. A group of academics from the Depar tment of Microbiology and Biochemistry has been involved in an exciting international collaboration of researchers which solved a difficult and intricate problem in science,
