Graduate Centre for Management celebrates academic excellence

CPUT’s Graduate Centre for Management (GCM) recently held its 2009 Certificate Ceremonies at the Barkly Davies Building on Mowbray Campus.

On 24 November 2009, 159 students’ hard work paid off when they received certificates for completing four different courses at the Somerset Square Campus.

The courses included Certificate in Management Practice, Public Management, Secretarial and Administrative Practice and Travel and Tourism.

Carly Steyn, representing Daan de Goede, Head of Department of the GCM within the Faculty of Business, delivered the welcoming speech.

Addressing the students, she said: “A Certificate Award Ceremony of this nature reminds us of the value and importance of education and privilege of a tertiary education.

“You have now all the benefits and exposure to higher education and we trust that you will continue your studies, as and when you are able, and we hope to welcome you back to CPUT.”

Bukelwa Mbalane who works for the City of Cape Town as a Health and Safety Training Coordinator and is also a CPUT alumnus was the guest speaker.

Mbalane studied her BTech: Business Administration at CPUT after completing a four-year nursing qualification.

Mbalane said: “Don’t take what you have achieved today for granted. Take it from me; you will make it out there in life. You must always be positive.

“Studying here helped me to be where I am today. I have a middle-management position and I am able to implement policies when needs be. On top of that, I sit in strategic planning meetings and they give me a chance to put into practice what I have learnt here.”

Four students were recognised as top achievers from four different courses.

Dudley Davids scooped the award for Certificate: Management Practice while Neo Poss was awarded the Certificate: Public Management.

Nosiviwe Plam was awarded the Certificate: Secretarial and Administrative Practice and Angela Pan walked away with an award for Certificate: Travel and Tourism Management.

Schalk van der Merwe, acting Dean at the Faculty of Business, delivered his congratulatory message and said: “I congratulate you all on your achievements. I trust that CPUT has given you a firm grasp and a good understanding of the knowledge and hard work that is required to succeed.”

Encouraging the students to always striving for excellence, Van der Merwe said nothing worthwhile in life comes cheap. “Be proud of what you have achieved and CPUT is also proud of you,” said Van der Merwe.

The GCM Certificate Programmes have been operating since 2004. For each course, students are required to finish five subjects in order to graduate at the end of the year.

GCM is introducing a new course next year titled Certificate in Applied Accounting.

One of the lecturers at GCM, Mbuso Tshaka, said: “2009 has been a very good year as we had brilliant students. They were highly committed and always had an imagination of things to the extent that they have arrived to this day.

“Our aim is to open a second stream of student recruitment within the Faculty of Business as that helps the students to get first time qualification in a form of a certificate in which we prepare them for the world of work.”

On 10 December 2009 GCM held another Certificate Award Ceremony, where 245 students were granted certificates.

The students received certificates for completing Assessor Training, End-user Computing, Event Coordination, Event Management, Even Organising Principles, Introduction to Project Management 1, Project Management 1, Public Relations 1, Tourist Guiding, Train the Trainer and Single Residential Property courses.

By Andiswa Dantile

Written by CPUT News
Email: news@cput.ac.za