Vut Alumnis Inspiring Changes for Future Leaders

Winners of the employee satisfactory survey: Mr Gabriel Thathana; Mr Reggie Seshoene and Mr Nkosi Petro

VUT Alumni team hosted an awards ceremony at the VUT Corporate Gift Shop on 20 January in order to honour the three VUT Alumni who participated in the employee satisfaction survey that was conducted.

In 2014, the Alumni team decided to focus on building solid relationships with former VUT students with the purpose of making them brand ambassadors, creating charters around the continent, encouraging them to share experiences, pointing out areas where the university needs to improve and how VUT is perceived out there.

The winners were randomly selected and walked away with some fantastic prizes.

First prize and a tablet went to Nkosi Petro, who works at Eskom Rotec Industries as an Industrial Engineer. He said: “The VUT Alumni team needs to focus more on advertising the brand; I work with five people who are from VUT and were not aware of VUT Alumni. My experience at VUT was good; lecturers were very supportive and were able to support students wherever they were through social media platforms.”

The second winner was Gabriel Thathana, who works as a lab technician in the VUT Biotechnology Department. “VUT has tremendously improved from 2007 when I arrived till now, especially in research. I speak highly of VUT and as an Alumnus and I recommend it to my siblings and friends,” he said. He also mentioned that he is very excited about winning a smartphone as he had plans to get a new one: “I feel like God has answered my prayers,” he laughed.

The third smartphone winner was Reggie Seshoene who is not only a VUT Alumni but a former VUT employee as well. He is currently Acting Executive Manager at Transnet while also doing his PhD in Industrial Engineering at the University of Johannesburg (UJ).

“I arrived at VUT in 2003, at a time where we had to queue for everything. A vibrant institution, full of energy and events it was. I believe that more can be achieved if VUT could focus more on exposing the university (more marketing campaigns) as there are people that don’t know it.

When asked about his transition from VUT to a work environment, he said: “It was easy for me to make the transition and all the students that I was with at that time are now in management positions. I currently mentor many students from traditional universities and, in terms of curriculum development, the universities should channel the way of learning towards the work environment.”

VUT and the Alumni team is very proud of these young men and would love to see more of VUT Alumni come forward as ambassadors for the upcoming “MaVUTis”.