The Durban University of Technology (DUT) continues to pioneer and integrate new innovative methods in order to enhance its teaching and learning processes.
DUT is now one of only three higher education institutions in South Africa to team up with the UK-based Amazon Web Services (AWS), to offer a specialised curriculum, dedicated to improving cloud computing-focused skills.
DUT met all of the eligibility requirements prescribed by the AWS Academy for institutions to participate in this programme.
The curriculum is designed for higher education institutions to help students develop in-demand cloud computing skills and to prepare them for industry.
According to IT Web, introducing the academy locally makes South Africa the only African nation and one of the 32 countries worldwide, to offer the specialised cloud computing curriculum in its higher education institutions.
DUT Faculty of Accounting and Informatics Executive Dean, Professor Oludayo Olugbara said that DUT was delighted to be selected as one of only three institutions in South Africa to offer this curriculum, and that this is indicative, that DUT offers skills that are in short supply and in high demand. “This further justifies that our academic programmes at DUT are rated very highly by industry,” said Prof Olugbara.
Commenting on this landmark achievement, DUT Information Technology (IT), Senior Lecturer, Dr Progress Mtshali said that one of the primary goals of the programme was to enable IT students at DUT to complete their practicals using the cloud infrastructure, thereby enhancing their skills.
He added that some of the modules that will be part of this programme included networking management, security management, database management, application integration, storage management, analytics and more. Currently it is offered to IT students but the objective is to broaden it to other programmes at DUT.
“Cloud-based skills are in high demand. The major benefit is that our IT students will be able to develop various skills that are in high demand, while completing their IT modules, before graduating from DUT. The resources offered by Amazon Web Services will also ensure that our students are using the latest technologies for their skills development,” said Dr Mtshali.
Pictured: Dr Progress Mtshali explaining how the programme will work in one of the computer labs at Ritson Campus where practicals will be undertaken by IT students.
Nduduzo Ndlovu
