The Vaal University of Technology students’ day tour of Liquid Telecom South Africa
The Vaal University of Technology students’ day tour of Liquid Telecom South Africa
Ms Becky Mosetlhe, Chief: Human Resources Officer of LTSA
Puleng Maphisa
Charity begins at home, giving back to the community its part of Vaal University of Technology (VUT). This proved to be true when VUT initiated the “VUT Champion a Student Campaign” which aims to support students with bursaries by creating relationship with different stakeholders.
This happened at a time when the process of establishing a relationship with a leading independent Telecommunication company, Liquid Telecom South Africa (LTSA). LTSA and VUT sealed the relationship by signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), on Wednesday, 7th of March 2018 which brought about a huge change in some of the IT students’ life. Through the MOU, LTSA gives funding to academically performing and financially deserving students. The discussion started in 2016 when both Mr Thapelo Makotanayane Senior Manager, BBBEE Transformation and Mr Kelvin Theko, then Chief Corporate Services Officer had a discussion with the Ms Kediemetse Mokotsi, Director of Marketing and Public Relations at VUT regarding the possibility of funding IT BTech students.
In 2017 everything became a reality when VUT received R470 000.00 to assist 10 B-Tech IT students who were academically performing and financially needy, these students were supported due to the lack of financial support by NSFAS. The donation became a seed funding for the VUT “Champion a Student Campaign”. Funding received to date has benefited 34 IT BTech students instead of 20 which was the initial agreement. This happened due to strict financial measures that both parties have in place to manage the allocation process.
Most of the beneficiaries had an opportunity to visit LTSA on Thursday, 28 February 2019 as part of the tour to understand the practical component of the world of work and have a feel of the impact of information technology in the fourth industrial revolution. Students were taken through a short induction of Liquid Telecom and had an opportunity to tour the following departments, namely: Network Operating Centre; IT and the Data Centre. They also had an opportunity to interact with various staff members who oversee operations of these departments. VUT is the first University to tour LTSA.
Ms Kediemetse Mokotsi, Director: Marketing and Public Relations at VUT, thanked Mr Thapelo Makotanyane, Senior Manager: BBBEE Transformation, for enforcing the good governance standards of LTSA to make sure that the relationship becomes long-term mutually beneficial for both parties.
B-Tech students enrolled for Information Technology who attended the Liquid Telecom tour
The tour ended with a message of appreciation from Ms Becky Mosetlhe, Chief: Human Resources Officer of LTSA. The focus of her message was on re-engineering the world of work and its implications for individuals and organizations, which requires them to re-imagine life long education to keep abreast with the era of the 4th industrial revolution. She reiterated the relevance of social skills in the world of work, the importance of investing in education and giving beneficiaries an opportunity to experience practical work experience at LTSA.