Caping Graduates and Passing out Artisans

The Crawford Campus Main Hall was the home to the 2023 College of Cape Town Graduation and Certificate Ceremony on the 18^th of May 2023. This year’s annual event brought in some new editions to the annual event, which included the passing out of artisans. According to the Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET) “Decade of the Artisans” mandate, all colleges need to produce and celebrate artisans, intending to address and promote skills development in the nation. All passing-out artisans received a toolkit according to their trades; they were so happy and said they will now be able to begin their careers of being self-employed in their communities.

Since 2022 the College has reached a resolution that only the National Diploma and Artisans will form part of the College Graduation and Certificate ceremony which is a huge event on the college calendar. With that being agreed upon, the Wynberg Skills Centre Management sat down and planned to have their own graduation and top achiever ceremony to ensure that the students at Wynberg don’t feel side-lined.

World Plumbing Day was first established in 2010 by the World Plumbing Council to recognize the critical role of plumbing in promoting public health and environmental sustainability. The day has been celebrated ever since to promote awareness about the importance of plumbing and its contribution to society, and its purpose to preserve and improve sanitation. As well as highlight access to clean water and hygienic conditions, and safe sanitary facilities to reduce the spread of diseases.

On Tuesday, 31 January, the Ath­lone Campus NCV Department hosted a “Second Chance” Information Session. This session is for students who are repeating NCV subjects either distance/full-time or along with their parents/guardians. The subject Lecturers also formed part of this session.

Some of the hearing-impaired students from our City Campus Art & Design Department alongside the Head of Department: Art & Design and Business Studies Ms Lodene Groenewald joined the Marketing Team at the DEAFSA Open Day which was hosted at Sanlam head office in Bellville.

Mandilakhe Pato with his book Ndixolele Peter during his book launch

Mandilakhe Pato is a young man who hails from Stutterheim in the Eastern Cape and currently residing in Khayelitsha while completing his studies in a Management Assistant at the College of Cape Town’s City Campus. Mandilakhe is a proud author of a Xhosa novel titled: “Ndixolele Peter” (Forgive Me Peter), the story is about parental relations and its challenges. He has witnessed a lot of children suffering from psychological trauma resulting from a lack of guidance and support from parents and/guardians, he hopes his book will address this and break the cycle.

Sharmila Cloete, who is currently an apprentice plumber at the College of Cape Town, Thornton Campus, was the only female who formed part of a team that took part in the Corporate Social Investment (CSI) initiative to refurbish the Holy Cross Children’s home in Parow Valley. Sharmila Cloete worked along with her fellow apprentice plumber students and professional plumbers. The areas that needed attention in the Children’s Home were identified and groups were formed to focus on the different areas identified.

Each academic year the College officially welcomes the newly registered students at each Campus’ Academic Opening, this event allows the new students to see the College Executive, lecturing staff and support staff. However, with the new normal (current world pandemic) we have seen ourselves moving from our usual seven Academic openings (one in each of the seven campuses) to a total of twenty-four sessions broken down at each campus and according to the student capacity for each programme.

On Friday, 12 February 2021, the Hospitality Department hosted a Valentine’s Day showcase. The Hospitality lecturers, along with Report 191 N6 students, planned, prepared and presented a variety of Valentine’s Day treats.

Mr Achmat Gafieldien, Deputy Principal: Innovation and Development.

Unisa’s Chance 2 Advance programme offered a two-day workshop to the College of Cape Town students. The Chance 2 Advance programme seeks to liberate, democratise and mobilize knowledge out of the university to create access for South African communities to cutting edge, current and socially transformative knowledge while concurrently mobilizing community knowledge into the university to transform, enrich and revitalise scholarship.