“adult learning - an education for life”

In this edition

A word from our senior manager

UCE goes green - Community Development initiative

W o m e n ’ s day celebra-tion

Farewell

Short Course Indaba Wow, six months has gone by since the launch of our first newsletter, 2011 sure flew

past us in an instant! Spring has made its appearance and it has brought along new

opportunities for the sunny season. Our second edition includes our going green initia-

tive as well as our women‟s day celebration which was celebrated at the lovely confer-

ence centre. We also bid farewell to our colleague, Gail Paulse who will be joining the

team at the new contact centre at Marketing & Corporate relations and we also intro-

duce a new addition to the UCE family, Leigh Swart.

The staff at Short Courses are ecstatic about our spring day “plant a tree” initiative.

Spring has sprung and UCE staff created awareness about global warming to the resi-

dents at Gelvandale frail care centre, an old age home situated in Gelvandale. Our

second edition is all about going green, and our plant a tree initiative was developed

to not only create awareness but we wanted to develop something that would continue

for years to come.

As you know, Short course indaba is a bi - annual publication, so unfortunately, this

will be our last newsletter for the year. I would like to give a special thanks to my fel-

low colleagues at UCE for their continuing support and encouragement and to Profes-

sor George de Lange, a heartfelt thanks for making this newsletter possible.

Until next year, keep well!

Nicole

Centre for Academic Engagement & Collaboration

October 2011

Edition 2

Picture Perfect! Jonathan Hansford, photography lecturer at NMMU prides himself in his work. Having been a

lecturer for many years, Mr Hansford still offers photography short learning programmes twice a

year.

Mr Hansford offers basic photography

short courses, which runs for 12 weeks,

at the university and it is a huge favourite

amongst adult learning in our society

today. Mr Hansford‟s photography

classes includes theory and practical

sessions, and practical classes includes

taking breathtaking pictures at Shark

Rock Pierre, Marine drive.

For more information about the NMMU

photography short courses, contact

Jonathan Hansford on 041-504 3257

Mr Hansford prides himself in his work

Excellence…. Jonathan Hansford (Centre) with

photography students at their certificate ceremony.

DID YOU KNOW?

World Environment Day , celebrated 5

June every year, promotes ways to

improve the earth's environment, such

as conserving forests.

Respect for the natural environment

“adult learning - an education for life”

Centre for Academic Engagement & Collaboration

The Short Learning Programme (SLP) annual report was submitted to the Director: Centre of Academic Engagement and Collaboration on 30 April 2011, and is available to all Deans upon request. We have had a signifi-cant increase in revenue and registered approximately 60 new SLP’s in the

2010. Our brand as a training institution of good repute continues to grow.

The National Skills Development III (NSDS3) is an important government strat-egy to enhance the skills development initiatives nationally and I advise you to read this document as there may be opportunities to spread your training foot-print wider. This document can be found at www.etdpseta.org.za

The aim of the NSDS3 :

• To improve the skills development system so as to be more responsive to la-bour market needs and social equity requirements. • To integrate workplace training and theoretical learning

• To improve the skills level of graduates of secondary and tertiary education • To address skills shortages in artisanal, technical and professional fields • To reduce the over-emphasis on NQF level 1-3 learnerships • To equip those in the workforce with sufficient technological skills • To improve co-operation between universities, further education and training col-leges and sector education and training authorities (SETA) • To support economic growth and development through viable skills development • To develop sufficient skills for rural development

Some of the features NSDS3:

a drop in mandatory grant rates to 40 percent and the creation of a 10

percent PIVOTAL (professional, vocational, technical and academic) fund

using skills development levy income resources, including the National

Skills Fund, to underwrite capacity-building and opportunity-promotion at public education and training provider institutions.

It is most likely that you will be able to make the strongest input at professional devel-opment levels of the local workforce and wider if necessary or viable.

In short, the time is right for gaining funding from SETA‟s for accredited training pro-grammes. The potential for earning for your departments is huge and more impor-tantly for making a deference in the ranks of the employed and unemployed.

A word from our senior manager

Briefs

Systems office whiz

The Unit for Continuing Education and the Student Systems Office embarked on a major project to set-up and cap-ture all SLP and Skills programmes on the ITS system. This was done to en-sure that quality data could be ex-tracted by means of reports. Hours of productive work were done by these two sections to re-look processes and procedures and to map this to the ITS system. Continuing Education must be commended on this new venture of re-engineering business processes to ensure best practice for administration of SLP/Short course programmes.

Training sessions as well as a Work-shop on Best Practice was offered by these 2 sections, to all departments including administrators from George. Staff in Systems Office has enjoyed every minute of guiding colleagues in this new venture of having a central data base for short courses. For the future there will be no more sleepless nights with an Excel spreadsheet that has gone astray and students requiring certificates.

It’s a glassy affair

The annual short learning pro-gramme is presented nationally in the major centres in South Af-rica. The course is aimed at mem-bers involved in the Aluminium and Glass industry.

The course deals with the theory and practical aspects of Aluminium and Glass Technology, such as; technical aspects of glass and alu-minium; contractual matters related to the construction industry; legal aspects affecting a business; the new consumer protection act; business administration, and composite related products.

For further information please contact the Course Facilitator, Dr. Franco Geminiani on 041 504 3203 or e-mail fl.geminiani@nmmu.ac.za

“adult learning - an education for life”

Gelvandale frail care centre is home to 94 residents. The centre has been in existence for the past thirty years and is run by Sis-

ter Linda Swart and administered by Lynn Fredricks. Due to unfortunate circumstances, the home receives donations and funds

are desperately needed to aid in maintaining the centre and making it a home to our elderly citizens.

UCE wanted to make the residents at Gelvandale frail care centre feel special so we decided to have a „plant a tree‟ initiative in

conjunction with Spring day. Two plants were donated and it was planted by UCE staff members in the garden at the frail care

centre. Apart from getting the residents excited about planting trees and being active, UCE donated R1000 worth of groceries to

the home.

The centre has been going through a rough a patch these past few years and every donation helps, whether it is groceries, toilet-

ries or curtains for that matter, every bit helps. Most of the residents have nowhere else to go, so the centre and everyone in it, is

what these residents call home. If you would like to know more about the centre or give a donation, contact Lynn Fredricks on

041—452 1111.

Centre for Academic Engagement & Collaboration

UCE gives back to the community

Donation… Gail & Jean sorting out the groceries that were do-

nated to the home.

Helping hand...Jean getting the hole ready for the tree

planting initiative..

Friendly face… Jean introduces herself to one of the old age

home residents.

Water babies.. Nicole watering the newly planted trees.

Respect for the natural

environment

“adult learning - an education for life”

Centre for Academic Engagement & Collaboration

Women’s Day

Celebration Women are phenomenal beings,

whether you are a home executive or

whether you are a career women. This

year, the ladies at the Unit of Continu-

ing Education (UCE) celebrated

women‟s day a few weeks earlier and

spent a lovely afternoon at the Confer-

ence Centre on North Campus.

Pink was the theme for the afternoon

and the ladies looked beautiful. The

Food was absolutely superb and the

company even better. The ladies

shared some really hilarious stories

about being a women in this day and

age and I can honestly say 21 July

2011, was an afternoon well spent!

Farewell

After two years, Gail Paulse

will be leaving UCE and

moving onto greener pas-

tures at the contact centre

at NMMU. We asked Gail to

share some of her memora-

ble moments during her

time spent at UCE.

Most memorable moment spent at UCE?

The most memorable moment was when we (UCE) gave a

food donation to the old age home in Gelvan Park. It was

most enjoyable paying a visit to the elderly and see the appre-

ciation on their faces as these are sometimes the part of soci-

ety that is often forgotten or neglected by the younger genera-

tion. We are here to serve and reach out to the less deprived

communities, and this act of kindness molds us as individuals

and contributes to the purpose of making the world a better

place for all.

New addition

Leigh Swart will be joining the team on the 1st September

and the team at UCE are thrilled! Leigh recently completed

her BA in Psychology and previously worked as a student

assistant at the Research Unit at NMMU. We hope Leigh

Enjoys her stay with us.

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We are here to serve and

reach out to the less

deprived communities