The Division of Student Affairs (DSA) recently held the Presidential Youth Employment Stimulus (PYES) Programme Graduate Interns Induction Training workshop at the Bellville campus.
The PYES Graduate internship programme officially commenced on 5 July 2023 and will run up until December 2023. On the first day of training at the library seminar room, the graduates were welcomed by Melani-Ann Hara, Student Development Officer at the Student Governance and Leadership Development, who is also a co-ordinator of the DSA Graduate Internship Programme.
The interns also received inspirational words of wisdom from the Acting Dean of Students, Nonkosi Tyolwana. Amongst those present were staff members and Central Student Representative Council members, Xolani Booi and Ramano Mpfunzeni, who provided their messages of support to the graduates.
The 23 Interns were selected from a large number of prospective graduates who applied for the programme from numerous departments such as Project Management, Office Management, Public Relations, Marketing, Journalism, Photography, Events and Sports Science. These interns are funded through the PYES Programme.
The workshop also comprised of presentations from various heads of departments within DSA namely Leanie Brits, Student Counselling; Melanie Swanson, HIV Campus Health; Dr Amanda Ismail, Disability Unit; Sammy Elie, Student Development & Leadership Development; Chris Williams, Student Life and Residential Services and Tumiso Mfisa from Centre for Diversity Inclusivity and Social Change.
Hara said the aims of the presentations were to “educate and provide an overview of the services offered within the DSA”. “The interns were made aware of what is expected of them and [they were] provided with an overview of Vision 2030,” she continued.
“The graduate interns now understand their role in creating awareness to students about the resources that these departments contain, and to fully utilise and develop their network and connection to better their future.”
The second day of training focused on team building and cohesion, with Hara curating various activities and visual aids to help the graduates settle in and “create strong chemistry between the new interns”
Written by CPUT News
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