The Durban University of Technology has entered into a partnership with the Energy and Water Sector Education and Training Authority (EWSETA), one of the 21 Sector Education & Training Authorities (SETAs) established in South Africa to develop skills.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by DUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Ahmed Bawa and EWSETA Acting CEO Nkanyiso Ngobese forms the basis for the establishment of a school for Renewable Energy Studies at DUT in a COP17 partnership with the eThekwini Renewable Energy Development Hub KwaZulu-Natal (eRED-HUB KZN) and the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI).
The school will also form part of the technology of the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) initiative for Industrial Energy Efficient Training and Resource Centre in South Africa. The MOU will further support collaboration with respect to training and research activities in the fields of Water and Energy at DUT.
DUT’s role in this Cop17 initiated partnerships will be as the lead academic institution contributing to academic training and research.
The Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy in Africa will be the hub to provide the human capital and technical capacity for sustainable implementation of renewable energy and integrated industrial infrastructure in Southern Africa. It will promote the development of a knowledge skills base for the energy and renewable energy industry, create scientific awareness in the green economy and renewable energy fields and promote community interaction and involvement in the green economy.
DUT will design renewable energy curricula at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and produce research for the project. The Academy will recruit scholars from rural schools, provide them with training and expertise as well as inculcate renewable energy techniques and processes into their formal education.
The faculties of Engineering and the Built Environment, Sciences, Management Sciences, Accounting and Informatics, Health Sciences and Arts and Design could participate in training and research projects emanating from the agreement.
Professor Bawa said these partnerships provide DUT with the opportunity of being involved in a real and major industrial projects that will produce substantial energy. He said signing the MOU is the easy part, adding that translating it into a powerful enterprise is the hard part.
Professor Gerhard Prinsloo, Director: Technology Transfer & Innovation said DUT is a practical university that seeks to implement solutions that will benefit the community. He spoke of other projects that his office is currently undertaking, including water treatment projects that look at the conventional and alternative approach. One of the projects is based at a village in Jozini where the community is forced to drink sulphur contaminated water.
Ngobese from the Energy & Water SETA said the MOU between DUT and the EWSETA is important because the type of learning at higher education institutions needs to be linked with research and also needs to be relevant to industry. “We need to partner with industry and universities in creating the curriculum so that (correct the quote from here) there is that. There is that vision moving forward,” he said.
– Sinegugu Ndlovu
Caption: DUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Ahmed Bawa shakes hands with EWSETA Acting CEO Nkanyiso Ngobese after signing the MOU which will be the basis for the establishment of a school for Renewable Energy Studies at DUT.
