In an effort to promote and strengthen relations between the Co-operative Education Department of the university and its stakeholders, the department held its engagement luncheon on Wednesday, (6 December 2017), at the King’s Club, Kingsmead Cricket Stadium.
The DUT Co-Operative Education department invited companies, DUT staff, students and various external stakeholders to the event in a bid to thank all of those who had been closely working with the department in achieving their aims for this year.
Co-operative Education is an integrated approach to higher education which combines academic learning with associated workplace experience achieved via the relationship between the university, its students, industry and the community. Industry includes all sectors of commerce and industry as well as small business and the informal sector and regional, provincial and state departments.
Addressing the attendees, the Director of the Co-Operative Education department, Mr Shakeel Ori shared some of the highlights from 2017. “In 2017 the department placed 5079 students for their Work Integrated Learning (WIL) experiences. “I believe we need to remind ourselves why we are here, why we exist at DUT and the heart of the answer is that it is because of the students. It is sad to say that sometimes some sectors forget that we are a student-centred university and we do need to be more student-centred, in my opinion,” he said.
Mr Ori also highlighted some of the national and provincial engagements his department has been part of to forge work-related relations and who offer WIL and experiential learning for students in the workplace. He added that these engagements also included working closely with organisations such as SASCE, DHET, the national WIL Framework committee, SAQA and SETA’s, to name but a few. The department has also collaborated with countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Hong-Kong and USA for placing DUT students. All in all, Mr Ori thanked all the stakeholders and his team for their commitment in achieving their 2017 successes.
Pictured: Mr Shakeel Ori, Director: Co-Operative Education.
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