Incubation and curriculum innovation in the Faculty of Economic Science and Information Technology

Sector

Higher education

Project budget

The maximum budget for this project is € 1.8 million.

Organisations

This project has been developed by North-West University. The tender for this project expired on 23 November. Nuffic has awarded this tender to CINOP, which has formed a consortium with Softstart Business and Technology Incubator.

Project description

For several years, South Africa has enjoyed a solid economic growth rate of more than 5%. Despite being a Middle Income Country and set to become a Higher Middle Income Country, there are still big differences in income distribution and considerable challenges ahead with regard to poverty reduction.

South Africa's economy is the largest on the continent, but it is largely dependent on mining, (eco)tourism and manufacturing. In several sectors it is facing tough competition from China, India and Brazil as well as smaller Asian countries. Low labour costs are matched by a lack of skills among the workforce. Increasing energy costs put pressure on the balance of payments and the value of the Rand. The South African economy is exposed to the global recession and decreased investor confidence in emerging markets.

Education and skills development are crucial to reducing the skills gap, which is widening despite investments in education systems. Quality of and access to education have been essential elements in the government's strategy to address historic imbalances. Despite a lot of achievements and extensive investment in education, the current education system is yet to produce the required results. Capacity building and skills training through strategies such as lifelong learning and entrepreneurship are key challenges for the near future.

The North-West University, located in an industrial area, will use this project as a vehicle to build stronger linkages with the labour market (both at curriculum level and by direct interaction) and create more job opportunities for its graduates.

Objectives

The overall objective of the project is to strengthen the Faculty of Economic Sciences and Information Technology at the Vaal Triangle Campus of North-West University to produce graduates who find (self)employment in the labour market. The specific objectives are to:

• establish an incubator facility in the Faculty of Economic Sciences and Information Technology, through various activities in collaboration with industrial and business partners.
• re-engineer or re-develop two post graduate programmes (masters level) in Commerce (Industrial Risk Management) and IT (Mobile and android technology), in order to create more job opportunities for its graduates.

A gender strategy for the project needs to be formulated. This strategy will be based on a gender analysis, taking into account the gender policy of the Higher Education Sector.

Finally, the faculty aims to become a learning organisation.