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27 October 2025 | Story Sefako Mokhosoa | Photo Supplied
BANKSETA
Ten Grade 12 learners from Mampoi Secondary School in Phuthaditjhaba.

On 1 October 2025, the Projects and Innovation Directorate in the Faculty of Education at the University of the Free State (UFS) proudly hosted a certificate ceremony to honour ten Grade 12 learners from Mampoi Secondary School in Phuthaditjhaba on the Qwaqwa Campus. These learners completed a Skills Development Initiative and Workshop Series focused on digital literacy and ICT skills – a programme designed to equip rural youth with the tools they need to thrive in a digital world.

The initiative, which ran from May to August 2025, was made possible through a strategic partnership with BANKSETA to bridge the digital divide in rural communities. The learners received hands-on training in essential digital tools. Each learner also received a tablet to support continued learning and personal growth beyond the classroom.

The Director of the office in the Faculty of Education, Dr Kwazi Magwenzi, stressed that digital skills promote independence and self-directed learning. “Grade 12 is a time when learners should manage their studies, meet deadlines, and explore their options,” she said. “Digital fluency supports that autonomy. It enables learners to use online research, interactive tools, e-learning, and collaboration platforms to make learning more effective, flexible, and aligned with their pace and style. In Grade 12, where the stakes are high – with exams, tertiary entrance, and career choices – this ability helps learners become more self-directed, confident, and equipped.” 

The programme not only built learners’ confidence in using ICT tools for learning and communication but also prepared them for the technologically driven environments they will encounter in institutions of higher learning.

Beyond developing digital skills, the project offered learners valuable exposure to the university environment, as their training took place on campus. Inspired by the success of this pilot, the Faculty of Education now aims to expand the initiative to reach more schools and learners across the region. The vision is to scale up access to digital education and empower more young people in rural areas with the skills necessary for academic and professional success.

This ceremony marked the conclusion of a successful training programme and the beginning of a long-term commitment to digital empowerment and lifelong learning in rural communities.

News Archive

UFS Faculty of Theology and Jonathan Edwards Centre at Yale University forge strategic partnership
2009-06-10

 
Prof. Francois Tolmie, Dean of the UFS’s Faculty of Theology.
Photo: Supplied


The Faculty of Theology at the University of the Free State (UFS) will establish a Jonathan Edwards Centre for Southern Africa, affiliated with the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University in New Haven in the United States of America.

This strategic partnership exemplifies the vision of the Faculty of Theology to be an internationally renowned theological and training faculty.

The UFS Jonathan Edwards Centre will serve as a research, education and publication hub for the study of Edwards and evangelical history and develop links with the international academic community.

Prof. Francois Tolmie, Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the UFS, said, “I welcome the plans to pay sustained critical attention to Edwards’s thought. Jonathan Edwards was an important American theologian, philosopher and more specifically America's greatest contributor to mission theology in Southern Africa.”

Dr Kenneth Minkema, Executive Director of the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University, adds: “The establishment of the Jonathan Edwards Center Southern Africa at the UFS in Bloemfontein is a significant expansion of Edwards scholarship and will serve widely both academia and the church.”

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), pastor, revivalist, Christian philosopher, missionary, and president of Princeton University, is widely regarded as North America’s greatest theologian. He is the subject of intense scholarly interest because of his significance as an historical figure and the profound legacy he left on America’s religious, political and intellectual landscapes.

In recent years, a rapidly growing interest in Edwards as theologian has brought the man and his writings onto the world stage, pressing beyond the popular and more parochial image of Edwards primarily as American preacher and American historic figure. Increasingly, his writings are being consulted by religious leaders, pastors, and churches around the world, spurred by a growing recognition of the fervency and universality of the Edwards message and the acumen with which he appraised religious experience.

This interest in Edwards globally has been fuelled in part by the work of the Jonathan Edwards Centre at Yale University, whose sole mission is to support inquiry into the life, writings, and legacy of Jonathan Edwards by providing resources that encourage critical appraisal of the historical importance and contemporary relevance of America’s premier theologian. The primary means to achieve this is with the The Works of Jonathan Edwards Online, a digital learning environment for research, education and publication that presents all of Edwards’s writings, along with helpful editorial materials that allow the reader to examine Edwards's thought in incredibly powerful, useful ways. The Works of Jonathan Edwards Online 2.0 is accessible through the Centre’s website at: www.edwards.yale.edu.

Media Release:
Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt.stg@ufs.ac.za
10 June 2009

 

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