‘”The Vaal University of Technology (VUT) honoured staff from the 2024 and 2025 cohorts at a Mentor and Coaching Certificate Ceremony, reinforcing its commitment to academic excellence and staff development.”
24 February 2026 | Story by: Nontobeko Moimane | Picture by: Peter Masela
3 minutes read time.
The Vaal University of Technology (VUT), through its Centre for Academic Development (CAD), marked a significant milestone in staff development by hosting a Mentor and Coaching Certificate Ceremony on Wednesday, 18 February 2026. The event celebrated academic and professional staff from the 2024 and 2025 cohorts who successfully completed the mentoring and coaching programme.
The initiative forms part of VUT’s broader commitment to cultivating a supportive, responsive and development oriented academic environment in which experienced staff intentionally nurture emerging academics and professional colleagues. It reflects a strategic investment in people as the cornerstone of institutional excellence.
Delivering remarks at the ceremony, Ms Elize Heur, Director for Staff Development at CAD, underscored the importance of measuring the tangible impact of mentoring beyond the awarding of certificates. She emphasised that mentoring demands sustained commitment and deliberate engagement, particularly in tracking the growth and progress of mentees over time.
“Mentoring is not a once-off activity. It requires continuous reflection on the development of those you mentor, the improvements you observe, and the feedback you receive,” she said.
Ms Heur explained that the programme is being rolled out in phases across faculties to ensure quality, manageability and meaningful impact, rather than imposing unrealistic expectations on individual mentors. She also reflected on growing national conversations around formalising mentoring frameworks within higher education institutions. While acknowledging the value of standardisation, she cautioned against rigid, uniform models.
“Leadership and mentoring styles are situational. You cannot define a mentor or leader using a single label. Effective mentoring responds to context, challenges and the specific needs of the mentee,” she noted.
The ceremony further highlighted that mentoring is reciprocal in nature, benefiting mentors as much as mentees. This perspective was echoed by Dr Karien du Bruyn, Information Specialist at the VUT Library and one of the programme recipients.
With more than three decades of service at the University, Dr du Bruyn reflected on the importance of institutional memory and intentional knowledge transfer. “I realised that I
have a wealth of experience in research, teaching and learning that younger academics can benefit from,” she said.
She added that the programme enhanced her active listening and communication skills, particularly through practical exercises that demonstrated how mentoring is grounded as much in listening as in advising. “Through mentoring, you develop yourself repeatedly. It allows you to remain connected to current academic challenges and solutions while contributing meaningfully to the growth of others,” she explained.
The Mentor and Coaching Certificate Programme continues to position VUT as an institution that values collaboration, reflective leadership and sustainable academic development. By investing in mentorship, the University strengthens its academic community, supports staff retention and embeds a culture of shared learning and continuous improvement.
In nurturing those who teach, research and serve, VUT reinforces a simple truth: academic excellence is not accidental. It is cultivated through guidance, dialogue and the deliberate transfer of wisdom from one generation to the next.