Thumbs up for Maritime Studies at uMfolozi

uMfolozi TVET College is serious about bridging the gap of youngsters who have been missing out on Maritime opportunities even though they reside near the ever growing port of Richards Bay. As a result, the first phase of doing so, involves revamping one of the old buildings at Esikhawini Campus with the aim to have a training facility for Maritime Studies. According to College Principal, Mr Sam Zungu, Esikhawini was chosen as it already boasts Transport and Logistic lectures and the two are interrelated.

Recently, the College held a fruitful meeting with stakeholders from the China State Engineering Cooperation, Construction Bank of China, Ulwazi Consortium, to name a few.  The aim of the meeting was to sensitize people that the College is in a process of establishing a public TVET College Maritime Academy.  A study carried out by South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA), indicated that there aren’t any public Colleges offering Maritime Studies, it was only universities and not all.

“We have been engaging with the Bank of China to explore the funding opportunities that they have rolled out in the continent and Southern African Development Community (SADEC), particularly in educational institutions. This was our third meeting and there are protocols to be followed including support by the College council and Department of High Education and Training (DHET) for the endorsement of the project. The College is also trying to mobilize resources from local industry and provincially as this is viewed as beneficiary to the region and province at large. We want to ensure that youngsters are able to take part in the ocean economy, as the majority was deprived historically. Local industries such as Transnet who is in the process of expanding the Port of Richards Bay couldn’t utilize local youth because of lack of necessary skills,” said Zungu.

So far the College has raised through NSF an amount to the tune of R80 million towards the project and R10 million from TETA for the installations of simulation. The College calls upon businesses and industry to contribute to this great initiative. 

HOSPITALITY PRACTICALS

In order to gain a better understanding and clearer picture of the theory learnt in class the Esikhawini Campus NC(V), Hospitality Level 2 students did their practicals on 5 May 2017. 

During the practicals students were afforded an opportunity to develop their cooking and food presentation skills.  They also had a chance to learn how to make certain food products from scratch instead of using store bought, ready-made products.

One of the students. Phumzile Magwaza, attested that doing the practicals helped her recognize some of the tools and ingredients that she had learnt about in theory but had never seen in real life, she further stated that since doing practicals she has been working  on improving her cooking at home by practicing what she learnt doing the practicals.  Phumzile believes that by doing practicals, students will greatly benefit from being familiar with the tools and techniques used in preparing food because they would have already seen and used them in class and that this will be advantageous when looking for employment.