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Moses Kotane Skills Development Centre Celebrates First Graduates

Johannesburg, 26 March 2019: Today the Moses Kotane Skills Development Centre celebrated its first 1000 Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) Beneficiary graduates at a certification ceremony held at University of Johannesburg (UJ) Doornfontein Campus. The graduates have completed vocational orientated technical or non- technical skills training according to their preference. In attendance at the ceremony was Mr Jacob Mamabolo, MEC for Infrastructure Development and Professor Marwala, UJ Vice-Chancellor.

The Moses Kotane Skills Centre was spearheaded by Mr Jacob Mamabola in 2018, to provide skills development training across various vocations in an effort to help alleviate unemployment and drive entrepreneurship across Gauteng. In support of this vision, the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development (DID) signed a five-year memorandum of understanding which tasked Resolution Circle to build and operate the Moses Kotane Skills Centre.

“We are pleased to see so many people benefiting from Mr Mamabolo’s vision,” said Corrie Smit, Project Manager at Resolution Circle. “By helping the current cohort of EPWP beneficiaries gain well-needed technical and non-technical skills training, we are not equipping them with skills for jobs of the future, helping them to change their futures and improving the lives of residents across Gauteng.”

The graduates were trained at UJ’s Doornfontein campus while the DID Westhoven Depot is being repurposed into the Moses Kotane Skill Centre. The Moses Kotane Skills Centre aims to be ready to take on its first trainees in its new facilities from May 2019 where it will provide vocational training on the following tracks: mechanical, electrical, automation, electronics, carpentry, building and fitting and turning.

The Moses Kotane Skills Development Centre aims to train 3 200 participants in 2019.

To find out more about the Moses Kotane Skills Centre or to learn more about this programme please contact:

Mr Wesley Jacobs Department of Infrastructure Development Wesley.Jacobs@gauteng.gov.za
Mr. Kgabo Sebina EPWP Programme Kgabo.Sebina@gauteng.gov.za
Mr Corrie Smit Resolution Circle (Pty) Ltd corries@resolutioncircle.co.za.www1.jnb2.host-h.net
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Resolution Circle selects new CEO

Resolution Circle (Pty) Ltd has announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Gideon Potgieter as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors effective immediately.  Potgieter previously held the position of Group Senior Manager Business Development and has served as Interim CEO since May this year.

“During the time of renewing the focus of Resolution Circle (Pty) Ltd in support of technical professional education, I’m pleased that Mr Gideon Potgieter has been selected as CEO. This selection brings both the element of continuity and change – this remains helpful for a transition.” said Prof. Saurabh Sinha, Resolution Circle’s Chairman of the Interim Board and UJ Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Internationalisation.

Gideon studied electronics obtaining his National Diploma and later his National Higher Diploma at the institution that has now been amalgamated into the University of Johannesburg. He later completed his MBA at the Rotterdam School of Management at the Erasmus University. Gideon has worked in several industries ranging from High-Tech Electronics and Information Technology to Automotive, Education and Medical Insurance in South Africa and abroad.

Most recently he became involved with the Product and Technology development for Start-ups in the Bio-Tech, Clean-Tech and High-Tech areas through Resolution Circle.

Since joining Resolution Circle in 2014, Gideon has spearheaded major strategy and technical shifts across the company’s portfolio of products and services.

He has also been fundamental in redefining the company’s core offering which is professional technical training and programmes for market readiness.The company also offers skills development modules that are not necessarily linked to a qualification and short learning courses in Technology like Arduino, Fibre optic, Programmable Logic Control (PLC) and Solar PV.The current Arduino and PLC courses are building blocks of the Industry 4.0 revolution.

Having started his career in Electronics, then moving onto Computer Hardware and Networking. Gideon has followed the same path as the company’s interns, so he understands their needs. He also had a great understanding of the the needs of the industry.

“During my time at Resolution CircleI have become involved in the product and technology development of other companies, and I have learned a great deal about the start-up and entrepreneurship scene in South Africa”, says Gideon, “I believe in participative management – I encourage and appreciate the input of employees and look forward to working with and leading my team in taking our strategy forward”.

“The opportunity ahead for Resolution Circle is vast, but to seize it, we must focus clearly and continue to transform. A big part of my job is to accelerate our ability to bring innovative products to our customers more quickly.” Gideon adds, “I would rather try something and fail than not trying at all.”

Speaking on behalf of the board, Prof. Saurabh Sinha said, “We believe Gideon has the right operational and communication skills and leadership abilities to deliver improved execution and financial performance.”

About Resolution Circle

Resolution Circle is a training hub that prides itself on providing experiential learning opportunities to undergraduate electrical and mechanical engineering students from universities of technology, practical in-service project training, various short-learning and candidacy programmes applicable to the ever-changing world of engineering and engineering technology.  We are a University of Johannesburg initiative.

For more information please visit:

www.resolutioncircle.co.za

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A rapid test for germination

If you have ever wondered about how to ruin the perfect beer, the answer is barley. Dormant grains and uneven germination of barley seeds result in unevenly modified malts that have an unpleasant flavour. Mr Charles Glass wouldn’t be very impressed with that, would he?

In preparation of a Better World by 2025, the SAB is moving towards smart agriculture by connecting thousands of farmers to technologies and skills. In this case, the technology is the rapid screening of barley seeds, and the skilled innovation specialist in the biotechnology, chemical and applied sciences space – Joseph Walker.

There are many strict protocols followed in creating the perfect brew. One of them is ensuring that the barley seeds have germinated when transported to the brewing house. Uneven germination does not only result in unpleasant flavour, it is also a financial loss.

If the seeds have germinated when they are weighed on the truck, it means that they will rot and the load will be rendered as useless. Joseph Walker has been working on a new technology that will replace the current testing method.

Walker explained that the test is similar to a pregnancy test and will be just as easy to use. He went on to state that the project is still in the intermediate stage, where he is still working with pure chemicals to represent what happens in nature in order to prove that the technology is viable. If successful, the process will replace the current method.

In a country that spends 2.1% of its household spending on beer, all necessary measures must be taken to continuously produce perfect ‘cold ones’. Resolution Circle cannot wait to see Walker’s technology save the agriculture sector millions of rands in seed loss; and with 2025 fast approaching, we also cannot wait to see the SAB align their environmental, social and alcohol responsibility to make the world a better place.

Besides being a training hub that focused on skills development and providing skills development in the engineering sector, Resolution Circle is also keen on engineering technology. Find out more about us here: https://resolutioncircle.co.za.www1.jnb2.host-h.net/

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The future of engineering is female

“Only 11% of all engineers globally are females. And women are still totally under-represented in the engineering industry with the number of female engineering graduates below 20% in many countries.” This is according to Naadiya Moosajee, the co-founder of WomEng, a South African social enterprise that is now operating in at least 13 countries.

As a training hub, the question of how we prepare females for a male-dominated industry is one that is rarely spoken about. Now that it has come up, here is one way to look at it: yes, we have females that play soccer, but, they don’t play on the same team as men. Therefore, how do we prepare the women we train to play on the same team as men?

We sat down with Phemeza Bukeka, an electrical engineer by education, and P2 alumni at Resolution Circle. Phumeza is due to obtain her Electrical engineering diploma from the Vaal University of Technology soon. Standing tall in her PPE and safety boots, she declared that, although she is yet to enter the industry as a qualified technician, she is happy that more and more women are thriving in engineering.

It is an unspoken rule at Resolution Circle, that everyone who is accepted into the experiential learning programme is treated as a technician and is expected to behave as one. Therefore, everyone on our workplace readiness programme is exposed to six trades (fitting and turning, carpentry, electrical, electronics, automation and boiler making), where they learn basic hand tooling for the first six months and application for another six months.

But, we do live in a country that has clearly defined gender roles. During her interview on a TV show called iSpani, Keneilwe Ntwagae – an Electrical engineering graduate at Vaal Tech and a junior technician at Resolution Circle, talked about being a woman in the engineering industry, she said: “of all the trades I have learnt during my training with Resolution Circle, boiler making was out of my comfort zone.  It is something I never thought I would do and we thought it is for men, but women can do it too”.

Phumeza detailed that working with men is no different from working with women, she said – “during our training, we were never overlooked just because we are women”. Boiler making and welding workshop training instructor – Winston Lawrence also encourages women to explore careers in the engineering sector and emphasises that there are no restrictions whatsoever in the industry.

As Women’s month comes to an end, we at Resolution Circle would like to take a moment to celebrate the women who don safety boots and PPEs to design, develop, test and supervise electrical systems and mechanical and thermal sensors and devices.

Learn more about our workplace readiness workshop training programme and experiential training, head on over to our website: https://resolutioncircle.co.za.www1.jnb2.host-h.net/