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18 May 2023
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Story KEKELETSO TAKANG
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Photo PEXELS
The initiative is not only aimed at getting potential (nascent) entrepreneurs (students, lecturers, stream of external entrepreneurs) actively involved in entrepreneurship, but also to keep them engaged and take them through a value chain to enable them to establish and run a sustainable business. The Business Management Start-Up Initiative will equip students with practical experience, along with the theoretical knowledge that they will accumulate, thus delivering resilient, capable, proudly Kovsie students to industry.
Students will fundamentally understand how business works, improving their employability when they enter a business as employees, and providing them with the skills to become self-employed.
Students can look forward to several interactive sessions with knowledgeable presenters, who will guide them through a well-structured process to continuously evaluate their business ideas against the knowledge gained. Moreover, the active involvement of mentors implies that students will have access to expert sounding boards for advice and motivation. Lastly, due to the partnerships with external stakeholders, students will be exposed to ‘real-life’ industry situations, exposing them to a wealth of industry-specific knowledge.
And just in case that is not enough to get you excited, let the possibility of funding for your new venture be the last drop of motivation you need to fill your tank for action!
Come join the Business Management team every Wednesday between 13:00 and 14:00 in the Flippie Groenewoud Gebou (FGG) 378 to be part of this exciting opportunity!
For more information on the initiative and the topics, click here.
Communication Science lecturers walk away with Best Teachers Award
2015-11-26
The winners: Jolandi Bezuidenhout, Rentia Engelbrecht, Jamie-Lee Nortje with Prof Milagros Rivera (Head of Department of Communication Science). |
Jolandi Bezuidenhout, Rentia Engelbrecht, and Jamie-Lee Nortje are the names behind the award-worthy A-Step programme. These lecturers in the Department of Communication Science at the University of the Free State (UFS) have been facilitating extra class for students in the extended programme since 2008. On 12 November 2015, they celebrated a major milestone when the programme received the Excellence in Teaching and Learning Innovation Award.
The annual awards are hosted by Dr Lis Lange Vice-Rector: Academic at the UFS, and administrated through the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL).
It was the first time that the Faculty of the Humanities had received the award. The lecturers were named the Best Teachers in the UFS, emerging in first place in the category: Student Engagement and Learning.
The A-Step sessions form part of a governmental programme dedicated to supporting students by offering diverse curriculum-related activities. Students attend two classes per week where they are equipped with language and life skills. As of 2015, the sessions were expanded to benefit not only the extended programme but all 788 students in Introduction to Verbal and Nonverbal Communication (KOM114).
“The activities are based on theoretical work we do in the mainstream classes,” explained Nortje. Primarily, the activities are meant to “help the student engage the work in a meaningful way so that they can understand it,” she said, which is why the sessions are designed in a fun and creative way.
The ‘Best Teachers’ organised and developed the A-Step sessions collectively and diligently over the years. The award, and the improved students’ academic performance, bears testimony to the effectiveness of their teaching style.
Marissa Grobbelaar, the Academic Staff and Development Project coordinator at the CTL, commended the lecturers’ efforts. Grobbelaar believes that “the way they approached their teaching and the passion which was evident in it,” was one of the reasons they deserved the award.
A former A-Step student, Rorisang Sekhasa, attested that, “the programme was very helpful because you get to have one-on-one sessions with your lecturer, and understand the work better. What was done in class is elaborated on in detail.”