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16 July 2020 | Story Valentino Ndaba
Add these emergency safety contacts to your speed dial.

Staying safe during the coronavirus pandemic extends to ensuring that students at the University of the Free State (UFS) are safe from crime. Crime in South Africa remains an unfortunate reality which continues to affect students, staff and the institution in general. 

“Crime requires constant vigilance from the community and this can only be achieved through initiatives that are aimed at informing the community on what to do and what not to do. To this end the BSafe Safety First flyer is geared at informing specifically the student community on safety measures that must be taken,” said Cobus van Jaarsveld, Assistant Director: Threat Detection, Investigations and Liaison at Protection Services.

The Safety First flyer is a guide for students to be crime-conscious whether at their accommodation, on the street, or in their vehicles. It also offers tips on how to act responsibly as far as alcohol and drugs are concerned.

Engaging students on their safety 

UFS Protection Services recently engaged with off-campus residence students in Bloemfontein in order to provide tips on how to stay safe in their neighbourhoods. During the engagement, the new Safety First pamphlets were distributed, and students were encouraged to join the Student Crime-Stop Brandwag WhatsApp group.

As from 15 June 2020, Nissi Armed Response was deployed from 18:00 to 06:00. This initiative has already led to them responding to several suspicious persons and vehicles, as well as some minor incidents and disturbances. Two arrests were made on different occasions as a result of the deployment. In the first incident, a suspect was arrested on 27 June 2020 after a burglary in Brandwag, and the second relates to a suspect who was arrested on 10 July 2020 after threatening students at Universitas.

These successes were the result of student and community participation in providing information, coupled with excellent response from private security companies, including Nissi Armed Response, VR Security, and BloemSec.

News Archive

UFS at the forefront of college lecturer training
2010-12-08

Prof. Jonathan Jansen (Vice-Chancellor and Rector, UFS), Butah Makgalemele (FET lecturer), Prof. Dennis Francis (Dean, Faculty of Education), Prof. Daniella Manning-Coetzee (Director: CED), Felicity Skully (EDTP-SETA, sponsors), Thantshi Masitara (SACCI) and Erica Odendaal (VEOP project coordinator) during the launch of the VEOP at the UFS South Campus.
Photo: Christiaan van der Merwe

The Centre for Educational Development (CED, which will be known as the School for Continuous Education from 2011) of the Faculty of Education at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently launched its special new programme for the furthering of the education of college teachers. The Vocational Education Orientation Programme (VEOP) is geared towards improving the teaching qualifications of Further Education and Training (FET) College lectures.

The programme focuses primarily on college lecturers without professional teaching qualifications, in a sector of the education system that has been long neglected according to Prof. Daniella Manning-Coetzee, Head of the CED.

This is all said to change with the implementation of the VEOP. The CED has already established training centres in Bloemfontein, Qwaqwa, Kroonstad, Thaba N’chu and Sasolburg, serving a total number of 240 lecturers. Topics specifically related to the FET College sector which these lecturers will be schooled in, include teaching methodology, assessment, workplace learning, FET College policy and planning, and action research.

The VEOP was developed by a national task team and reference group representing both universities and FET Colleges, and will be a 30-credit programme counting towards the 120-credit Vocational Education Certificate which is currently under development. 

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