By: Puleng Maphisa- 12 April 2023

In March 2023, the Department of Marketing, Retail Business & Sports Management at the Vaal University of Technology hosted the South Africa – Sweden University Forum (SASUF) Summit at the Emerald Casino Resort. SASUF is a strategic internationalisation project uniting forty partner universities, with both South African and Swedish universities being the leading partners at the forum, which was launched in 2017 with the aim of strengthening the relationship between the two countries in research, education and innovation.

The forum is two-pronged; with one being satellite events held at different universities discussing varying topics of research, while the second phase the SASUF event comprises a South Africa-Sweden Sustainability Forum which will be taking place on Wednesday 29 – Friday, March 31 at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in Cape Town.

The event was marshalled by Professor Nobukhosi Dlodlo, who gave a presentation titled: “Enhancing the professional competencies of Marketing graduates”. In keeping up with the organisation’s trends, there was an emphasis on the need to align with industry and prioritising the invaluable role of professional bodies such as the Marketing Association of South Africa (MASA), who remain key catalysts in stimulating graduate-ness. In her presentation, Prof Dlodlo underscored that employers are not looking for the same skill, but they look for unique and primate skills-sets that enable graduates to thrive in the technologically adept global networks. Thus, the iterative role of university-industry partnerships remains indelible in carving a niche of creative and innovative graduates.

For the VUT presentation please use the following link: https://lnkd.in/eVfGrMc