Alumni
Unisa is open to partnerships
Yet another theme to emerge at the Unisa Principal and Vice-Chancellor’s Business Dinner with captains of industry on 20 October was the need to work together to have long, impactful results on especially the success of Unisa students.
Read part 1 in this series of articles: Unisa graduates are ready to serve
Dr Phasoane Mokgobu, Vice-Principal: Institutional Development at Unisa
What does Unisa need from the industry? Dr Phasoane Mokgobu, Vice-Principal: Institutional Development at Unisa, indicated that stakeholders needed to come together to change the depressing picture of the country and continent.
He further indicated that Unisa honours Agenda 2063 which is intended to transform the economy, foster inclusive growth and accelerate Africa’s sustainable development. Mokgobu alluded to the fact that Unisa wants to bridge the gap between academia and industry, and "it is ready to serve the need".
The engagement dinner was organised with the hope that it will be able to spawn opportunities for the university together with business to better respond to finding solutions to the challenges the country faces.
David Farirai, Director: Institutional Advancement at Unisa
Unisa is currently working with stakeholders from different sectors locally, regionally and internationally, but "needed to scale up the efforts, strengthen relationships and make them more sustainable," pointed out David Farirai, Director: Institutional Advancement at Unisa.
Farirai further highlighted that more mutually beneficial partnerships needed to be embarked on with the private and public sectors. "This benefit would help create opportunities for Unisa students and staff to jointly work on research development and production while providing experiential learning for students."
Unisa Enterprise, through its CEO, Tsabiso Letsoela, offered to package business ideas and to work on business solutions together with industry as it concerned itself with commercialising Unisa’s assets to create third- and fourth-income streams to keep Unisa sustainable.
Letsoela said that Unisa Enterprise was already making strides in skills development, research solutions, innovation, business development, consulting and business support, supplier development programmes, skills development, market intelligence and online learning assistance.
According to Letsoela, "collaboration is needed for the emerging reality where communities and societies continued to face complex problems. We are to come up with solutions."
* By Busisiwe Mahlangu, Communications Coordinator, Department of Institutional Advancement
Publish date: 2021-10-28 00:00:00.0
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