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UJ develops new generation of technopreneurs

Sibahle Malinga
By Sibahle Malinga, ITWeb senior news journalist.
Johannesburg, 12 Aug 2022
Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, outgoing principal and vice-chancellor of UJ and deputy chair of the presidential commission.
Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, outgoing principal and vice-chancellor of UJ and deputy chair of the presidential commission.

The University of Johannesburg’s (UJ’s) Technopreneurship Centre has made strides in helping to develop many new-generation technopreneurs.

This was the word from professor Tshilidzi Marwala, vice-chancellor of the UJ and the next rector of the United Nations University.

Marwala was speaking at CNBC Africa's Future of Education Summit 2022 during a discussion titled: “Advancing transformation in the education sector”.

Speaking to CNBC Africa's Fifi Peters in a one-on-one setting, Marwala highlighted the importance of converging entrepreneurship and technology in one space, to ensure today’s entrepreneurs contribute to the digital economy, while creating job opportunities and develop future-fit business solutions which respond to real world problems.

Referencing the UJs Technopreneurship Centre, he noted the centre has seen much success in creating scores of digital entrepreneurs.

“Entrepreneurship is the future… we don't just train people to go and seek jobs, but we also train people to go and industrialise our society,” Marwala explained.

“There are a number of things that make this possible through the centre. Firstly, it's the knowledge base – to enable student entrepreneurs to have access to a network of high-level industry experts.

“Secondly, it is access to mechanisms that can commercialise the ideas and concepts these students have – where they can get their patents registered with lawyers and advisors.”

Thirdly, the centre has a space that was created in collaboration with Accenture, to help students develop and test prototypes, he added.

In May 2018, the UJ School of Consumer Intelligence and Information Systems and the Department of Applied Information Systems collaborated to launch the state-of-the-art Technopreneurship Centre, billed as the first of its kind at UJ.

It is an ideation and innovation hub, where industries’ most pressing unresolved challenges can be addressed, researched and solved by UJ students, supported by academics.

According to Marwala, the centre fosters collaboration among students and industry partners with regards to building technologies, by involving students in structuring real-life innovative solutions in the form of intelligent software systems, video games, mobile applications and other forms of technological solutions.

“We have also created a safe space where some of the tools reside – these are tools that are required to create innovative prototypes so that students are able to turn their ideas into products that can make a meaningful difference in society, and serve people and create jobs, while contributing towards the economic expansion of our country.”

As part of UJ’s fourth industrial revolution (4IR) vision, the institution has made it compulsory for all of its more than 50 000 students to take a course in artificial intelligence, he added.

Responding to a question about how higher learning institutions can address SA’s unemployment crisis, he pointed out: “More can be done and more should be done. Universities have a significant role to play in being part of the solution in creating job opportunities – for example, partnering with organisations in order to place students, which is what the UJ is doing.

“Another important element is to ensure the curriculum offered by the universities responds to the changes that are happening around us, in the era of the 4IR.”

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