CPUT recently hosted business and industry partners for a productive engagement, which also served as a platform to launch the Institutional Industry Advisory Forum.
The Forum will seek to advise on job market trends, as they relate to work-integrated learning, future-proof curricula, research and innovation.
The event, held at the Cape Town Hotel School on the Granger Bay campus, provided valuable opportunities for networking while some of the cutting-edge research conducted at CPUT was also showcased.
Vice-Chancellor Prof Chris Nhlapo said cooperation in research development and innovation between universities and industries plays a fundamental role in the economic development of any country.
“Industry benefits from state-of-the-art laboratories and technology from academia, while higher education institutions learn about business reality and market needs.”
Prof Dina Burger, Director: Research Development, said the event was a significant day and milestone on the calendar for the CPUT community.
Burger said one of the university’s focus areas is smart engagement and strong links with quintuple helix partners.
“A partnership between us will take us far, and today we will solidify our commitment to partnerships in launching the institutional industry forum.”
The keynote speaker was PRASA acting regional manager, Raymond Maseko, who said PRASA was the beneficiary of a partnership with CPUT. He outlined the important role CPUT students had played in the recovery of PRASA’s rail network.
Maseko said that when the train service resumed after the hard lockdown in 2020, PRASA had to recover much of its network, which had been destroyed during the lockdown.
“Because we were planning now to recover the service, we increased our intake from CPUT in 2021 to about 36 students from the electrical engineering school, from mechanical engineering and also we took some operations management students.” Some of the students worked as project managers.
He said 21 of these students were now permanent PRASA employees.
“We have recovered all of the stations with the people that we have been working with, from industry, of course other contractors, but specifically from people that we have sourced from partnering with CPUT.”
Prof Lalini Reddy, Director of the Centre for Community Engagement and Work-Integrated Learning (WIL), said it had been an honour for the Centre to co-host the event.
“In launching the Institutional Industry Advisory Forum, we commit to offering our future-proof curricula in preparing them for the future world of work.”
Prof Rishidaw Balkaran, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Learning and Teaching, said the idea was to ensure that CPUT made learning relevant for our students but there were also benefits for industry, including from the cutting-edge research conducted at the institution.
David Haarhoff, Project Lead, Community Engagement and WIL, said events of this nature aligned with the institution’s vision of being an inclusive university that constantly strives to collaborate and innovate with industry partners.
“The focal point of the event was essentially to recognise the dedication and efforts of industry partners in affording our students opportunities to develop professionally. I am extremely happy with the engagement and networking of industry partners who also recognise the university’s research efforts and provide current trends within industry which align to the curriculum.”
Written by Ilse Fredericks
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