Students Honoured at CUT-Samsung Innovation Campus Certificate Ceremony

Award Ceremony contributing to the national imperative of creating work-ready and employable youth

Central University of Technology (CUT) in partnership with Samsung South Africa have honoured a group of 20 students of the Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC) at an award ceremony, where certificates were handed out as an affirmation of the successful implementation of the CUT- SIC programme.

This award ceremony is a culmination of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that was signed by Samsung and CUT in November 2022. The SIC partnership remains an important milestone for the university as it is able to empower both the 20 graduates and also the six lecturers that have access to the programme and its specialised content. The group of exceptional students that are graduating from an intense 12-week software development training are now the main beneficiaries and proud products of the SIC programme.

The CUT-SIC programme aims to develop and teach Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) skills including Coding & Programming education in Python, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data to the university’s student community. This global SIC that has been adopted by the Department of Information Technology (IT) at CUT is 60% theory and 40% of it focuses on practical experience. This is referred to as the Samsung Capstone programme – an equivalent of the local work-integrated learning programme. The ultimate objective of this global SIC programme is to contribute to the national imperative of creating work-ready and employable tertiary students.

SIC is a strategic partnership with CUT with a clear intention of developing 4IR skills in the country’s youth to create further opportunities for growth. The programme seeks to provide youth from underserved communities with an opportunity to gain critical skills in basic coding and programming, AI, IOT as well as Big Data education. However, the collective vision of this partnership is not only to enable and empower CUT students with expertise in 4IR, but also to turn them into future technological leaders.

Hlubi Shivanda, Director: Business Operations and Innovation and Corporate Affairs at Samsung South Africa said: “SIC seeks to boost youth employment in the technology sector by empowering them with ICT and 4IR skills, while also encouraging them to consider opportunities as entrepreneurs in information and communications technology. We target and form strategic partnerships with universities of technology in particular, such as CUT that place special emphasis on practical experience and entrepreneurship – this combined with the principles of SIC enables us to provide a low-volume and high-impact approach programme to the country’s youth.”

This partnership with Samsung has ensured that the graduating students from CUT are now empowered to become a generation of problem-solvers. CUT students are now equipped with future-proof skills and practical understanding of the technologies that will shape their future and enrich sustainable growth of the world.

Prof. Alfred Ngowi, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation & Engagement at CUT said: “During the signing ceremony of the MOA in 2022, we indicated how we aspire to become a key player in the 4IR space through our applied research approach for the benefit of the communities that we serve. The introduction of the SIC programme and more importantly, our partnership with Samsung helps us to achieve one of our main objectives of empowering our students with critical ICT skills that can help address the high levels of unemployment faced by the rural and disadvantaged communities where we operate.”

This collaboration is helping to achieve the common objective of empowering CUT students with software development skills through innovation. Also, these students that are graduating will be offered an additional AI training that is due to start this August with the intention of enhancing their chances to do better for themselves. This group of students will be expected to complete this intense AI training programme in November of this year.

Shivanda adds: “As a company, we always put emphasis on the importance of education through technology. This partnership with CUT provides us with the opportunity to re-affirm our commitment of empowering the leaders of tomorrow and equipping them with the tools they will need to realise meaningful change.”

Samsung proudly supports Busan’s bid for the World Expo 2030.