First E-Skills cohorts graduate

Nababeep E-skills and Technical support graduates with delegates from different organisations

Lungelo Magwaza

The Vaal University of Technology E-Skills CoLab hosted its first official certificate ceremonies at the Nama E-Skills Business Centre in Nababeep and in Pofadder on 28 February and 1 March respectively.

VUT created the Collaborative Laboratory (CoLab) in partnership with the National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA), which forms part of the National E-Skills project under the auspices of NEMISA and the Department of Telecommunication and Postal Services (DTPS).

NEMISA’s goal is to equip 21 million citizens with the basic e-literacy skills by 2030 and the VUT is one of seven university partners committed to achieving this goal.

The VUT CoLab partnered with the Nama E-skills Business Centre in Nababeep, which is owned and managed by Mr James Jonas, to offer e-literacy skills development, community upliftment and SMME creation in previously “unreached” communities.

The day’s programme was led by Mr Jose Elonga. Pastor Peter Diome directed the day’s prayer while CoLab Director, Mrs Antoinette Lombard welcomed all the guests and graduates and gave the opening address. Mr Dirk Waterboer of the Community Development Work Programme gave his message of support to the graduates and congratulated them for their determination and hard work.

Hendrick Dixon, one of the technical support graduates, saw this programme as a wonderful opportunity, seeing that his community hardly had the funding for further education and training.

The Director of the Oversight Branch at the DTPS, Mr Marius van Niekerk, congratulated the graduates on their success in completing the E-Skills programme and encouraged the rest of the community to take part in it: “The seed has been planted, so it is up to you graduates to make it grow,” he said.