Education and training

North-West University now offers Mechatronic Engineering.

Sector Insight Civil servants are getting extra training.

The Tebogo Nokwana Foundation donates shoes and sanitary towels to Matlhare Mokautu Secondary School. Image: North West Department of Education

Ubank and Royal Bafokeng Holdings have established the Thutopele Learnership which provides young people with working experience while they study towards a National Banking Certificate NQF level 5.

Of the first 15 trainees who went through the learnership, 13 were employed by Ubank within the province or in neighbouring Gauteng.

The programme prepares students for positions as tellers, sales consultants and in-service consultancy.

A Provincial Government three-year programme has placed 120 unemployed graduates in the agricultural sector on farms as part of experiential training and learning. The North West Office of the Premier disburses bursaries to the Ikatisong School of Governance (located at the University of Pretoria) for civil servants or prospective civil servants.

Studies can be undertaken in seven faculties.

The North-West University Business School has agreed to collaborate with the North West Provincial Government in building the relevant skills of officials. The school offers an MBA and a Postgraduate

Diploma in Management at three sites.

A specific initiative to tackle unemployment was planned for 2020, a Provincial Skills Development Lekgotla. Participants were to be the

National Skills Authority (NSA) and various SETAs and their brief was to develop a provincial intervention strategy relating to young people who are neither employed nor in education and training.

South Africa’s educational institutions are being encouraged to focus on artisan skills. At the moment, about 13000 artisans are trained in the country every year; the National Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) wants that figure to be 30 000 by 2026.

The first 164 graduates of a joint programme of the North West Department of Economy and Enterprise Development and the Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA) have received certificates in plumbing. The three-year apprenticeship is focussed on women and youth.

Technical Vocational and Educational Training colleges teach skills that are relevant to the work place. North West has three TVET colleges with several campuses each. Vuselela TVET College has its headquarters in Klerksdorp, where there is also an accredited trade test centre. There are a further four campuses: Jouberton Centre for Engineering Studies; Matlosana Campus; Potchefstroom Centre for ICT and Taung Campus.

Orbit TVET College has three sites, Rustenburg, Mankwe and Brits, with about 15 000 students overall. The Rustenburg campus of Orbit College hosts a Microsoft IT Academy while

the Mankwe campus offers automotive training, the result of a partnership between the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related SETA (MerSETA), Lelethu Training and Ford South Africa.

Orbit TVET College hosts an electronics academy courtesy of sponsors Samsung Electronics on the Mankwe campus, and in partnership with the MerSETA. Mankwe also offers Automotive Repair, Maintenance and Transport and Logistics and is a Centre of Specialisation in Diesel Trade.

The Taung Agricultural College is accredited by the Council on Higher Education (CHE) to offer the NQF level6 Diploma in Agriculture specialising in Irrigation Technology.

Two teachers from the North West, pictured right, were among the top achievers in the 2019 National Teachers Awards, Constance Kgomotso Pilane from Mafenya Primary School and Genevieve Classen of Fields College. As of the start of the school year in 2020, 27.5% of pupils at schools in the North West had access to information through connectivity.

University news

The CHE has announced that the North-West University (NWU) Bachelor of Laws (LLB) programme has received full accreditation.

A new qualification, Mechatronic Engineering, has been added to the courses offered by the Faculty of Engineering. The Bachelor of Mechatronic Engineering programme has been approved by the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA), enabling graduates to compete internationally. This programme will be offered in 2021.

The faculty now offers eight specialities, including industrial and electromechanical and chemical engineering (minerals processing). Partnerships include Sasol, Eskom, Denel Aviation, Telkom and Sappi.

The Faculty of Engineering is a leading department in terms of innovations and plays a role, together with the NWU Technology Transfer and Innovation Support Office, in commercialising ideas by creating companies.

The university and its researchers are leaders in many fields, including astrophysics, tourism, solar energy and extruder technology.

Among the research entities at NWU, there are five chairs allocated by the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI): Astrophysics and Space Physics, Coal Research, Biofuels and other clean alternative fuels, Nuclear Engineering and Early Detection and Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Africa.

North-West University has more than 65 000 students, with about 26 000 of studying by correspondence. The university’s main campus is at Potchefstroom with satellite campuses at Mmabatho and Vanderbijlpark. The pharmaceutical faculty at the Potchefstroom campus of the North West University is regarded as a national leader.

The University of South Africa (Unisa) has three branches in North West, at Rustenburg, Potchefstroom and Mmabatho. ■ Image: North West Department of Education

Online Resources

Mining Qualifications Authority: www.mqa.org.za North West Department of Education: www.desd.nwpg.gov.za North-West University: www.nwu.ac.za NWU Business School: www.commerce.nwu.ac.za Thutopele Learnership: www.bafokengholdings.com/careers