AUT staff meet with a high-level South African delegation

AUT staff meet with a high-level South African delegation

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Hon Steven Joyce has stated “The international education industry is worth just over $2 billion to New Zealand’s economy. It is a bridge between New Zealand and the world”.

AUT University is committed to its global partnerships and international students, and currently has the second largest international student enrolment in New Zealand.

As part of that commitment AUT today received a South African delegation of high-level representatives from government, business, education and civil society organised by the South African e-Skills Institute. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the possibility of collaborative research, establish ongoing organisational relationships and explore the possibility of establishing studentships, collaborative postgraduate research, exchanges and sabbaticals.

The South African e-Skills Institute was established by the South African Department of Communications to address the local shortage of ICT-related skills (e-skills). In this context e-skills have been defined as the capacity to effectively use any ICT to improve life chances in a personal, community, work or education sense, or in participation in governance processes.

The e-Skills Institute aims to grow the human resource e-skills base, embed technology into people’s lives, provide the base for increasing equitable prosperity in South African society therefore positioning South Africa to increase its global competitiveness. The initiative has attracted widespread interest across government, business, education and civil society and the e-Skills Institute now has relationships with many South African and international partners.

The South African delegation and key AUT staff discussed the adoption of ICT for job creation and innovation, and approaches being used to stimulate the innovation and creative industries. The delegation wanted to know about frameworks for developing research, monitoring and evaluation in a knowledge-based economy – including any opportunities for collaborative research.

AUT’s Director of International Relations and Development Chris Hawley lauded the meeting as being very successful, saying “we look forward to growing cooperation with Universities in South Africa as a follow up to this delegations visit”.

ENDS

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