The interim CEO of NEMISA Mr Phuti Phukubje paid a visit to the KZN e-Skills CoLab team under the directorship of Dr Surendra Thakur and the Deputy Vice Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Engagement, Prof Sibusiso Moyo. The purpose of the visit was to introduce himself, celebrate the 10-year relationship and to explain the new three-year MOU. Mr Phukubje explains “The NEMISA project is a multi-stakeholder project with 6 partnering universities with each university acting as CoLab’s (Colaboratories) tasked with e-skilling the nation. The model recognises the unique role that universities play in society. It principally tackles the community outreach goal of each university and “extends this reach”, while also leveraging their individual teaching and research strengths.”
The KZN e-Skills CoLab Director Dr Thakur was delighted “The 3-year MOU is music to my ears after so many years of year-on-year MOUs where each MOU was essentially a new contract. This provides us with a medium-term operational window to comfortably plan and work through. I predict the next three years will easily beat our last ten-year performance.” “Watch this space!” he enthused.
Prof Moyo added that the 3-year MOU demonstrates stability to the university and our partners involved with the KZN e-Skills CoLab’s projects. She further recommended that the CoLab should spend more effort on marketing “the great work you do!” “You keep doing and doing, but the country needs to see and celebrate this outcome,” she gently chided. CEO Phukubje agreed and said that NEMISA will also spend more effort supporting and marketing KZN CoLab’s work.
“Our CoLab Directors are our champions and Dr Colin Thakur is one of our first and most prodigious contributors. He writes and contributes on all media and academic platforms in his own engaging manner.” He invests his time in the leadership of tomorrow with confidential personal and academic mentorship. He walked-that-talk by already demonstrating successor planning at the DUT CoLab.”
Prof Moyo agreed and thanked Mr Phukubje. “We have 30 000 students and each student is potentially a champion who can be trained to respond and transform society towards the “4th Industrial revolution” we are confronted with. The danger we must mitigate – the opportunity we must exploit,” she concluded adding “Here’s to another 10 more 3-year contracts between NEMISA and DUT!”.
