To train novice researchers to become accomplished publishers, the Department of Management and Project Management launched the Journal of Leadership and Management Studies (JOLMS) at the Suites Hotel.

The recently launched multidisciplinary journal is a sequel to the annual Leadership and Management in Project-driven Industries South Africa (Lamipisa) Conference which the department has been hosting since 2013.

All the paper contributions accepted for Lamipisa 2013 were peer reviewed and in agreement with the authors, some articles were selected and published in the current issue of JOLMS.

JOLMS Editor-in-Chief, Dr Larry Jowah, said the journal has 35 contributors from various parts of the world including four from CPUT.

Jowah announced that a second issue will be released in November/December and that after the third issue in February the department will apply to the Department of Higher Education and Training for accreditation of both the conference and journal.

He thanked all the staff members who made the journal possible.

Dr Chris Nhlapo, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Technology,Innovation and Partnerships, congratulated the department and said the quality of the journal is unbelievable.

Nhlapo says that in the decade ending in 2012, CPUT’s average growth rate in overall research output was ranked second in the Universities of Technology sector.

He says CPUT has a young generation of scholars, between the ages of 35 and 44, when compared to other universities whose scholars are generally in their 50s.

Acting HOD Angela Buys said the conferences and the journal gave the department’s research image a major boost.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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Students who created projects during the International Winter Academy on Student Leadership in Community Engagement were recently awarded certificates at the Bellville Campus.

The academy is a collaborative partnership between the University of Applied Science of Osnabrueck (Germany), Guizhou University of Finance and Economics (China) and CPUT’s Service-Learning Unit and Department of Management and Project Management.

Hosted by the Service-Learning Unit, the academy saw about 20 students from the three universities working in international teams to create community engagement projects to be implemented in the metropole.

Towards the end of the academy the students presented their projects in front of a jury, composed of their lecturers and external experts from Cape Town, which assessed them and gave feedback.

The students will receive academic credits on submission of their project portfolios in September.

Besides creating their own projects, students in the academy were also encouraged to learn from their counterparts from other countries.

During the academy the students presented current streams and trends from their respective countries on arts and culture, sports and leisure as well as food and hospitality.

Lecturers and guest speakers presented concepts and theories on project management and community engagement models from the different countries.

These activities allowed students to learn about their respective traditions and preferences and gave a global perspective of community engagement, says Jacqui Scheepers, Manager of the Service Learning Unit.

Prior to implementing their project at the schools, the students volunteered their services at Jack and Jill Pre-school in Durbanville and Curious Cuties Educare, Bellville South, as part of their Mandela Day initiative.

Lecturers at the academy were Osnabrueck’s Prof Dr Gesa Birnkraut and Dr Rainer Lisowski, Guizhou’s Dr Heng Tian and Qidi Xiao as well as CPUT’s Jacqui Scheepers, Irshaad Desai and Nobuhle Luphondo.

*The academy was hosted in Germany in 2015 and will go to China next year.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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Delegates attending the 4th Leadership and Management in Projects-driven Industries in South Africa (LAMIPISA 2016) Conference were urged to not only diagnose the challenges facing the continent but also devise strategies to fix them.

The three-day LAMIPISA Conference, which was held recently on the Cape Town Campus, was organised by CPUT’s Department of Management and Project Management.

More than 70 papers were submitted to the conference whose theme was “Modelling Africa out of chronic poverty” and delegates from universities in the Slovac Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa attended the conference.

Prof Louis Fourie, DVC: Knowledge and Information Technology Services, challenged the delegates to move away from conferences that do not discuss the destiny of the continent.

“As we continue to meet year after year, our hope is that you should be able to start talking more openly about the future of the continent as academics,” said Fourie.

Willem Lotter, Acting Dean: Faculty of Business and Management Sciences, said getting the basics right is essential to build and strengthen capability and trust in order to achieve good governance and pride.

“I trust that the 70+ papers will not only diagnose the problem but also find a way to fix it, given liberty, high moral standing, political will and stability, so that we at LAMIPISA may combine to provide a Development Model incorporating the young, old, weak, needy and provide for our many African students the knowledge, guidance and insight to apply their education and create equal opportunities,” added Lotter.

Angela Buys, HoD: Management and Project Management, encouraged deliberations and research presentations that contribute towards, among others, models of aggressive but reasonable interventions, based on chronic poverty literature, to determine the possibility of increasing chronic poverty reduction.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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CPUT recently hosted the 2^nd International Conference of the Leadership & Management in Projects Driven Industries in South Africa (Lamipisa) at the Cape Town Campus.

Some of the topics discussed by academics included the management of mega projects focusing on social development such as South Africa’s National Development Plan, non-governmental development organizations, community participation and entrepreneurship.

The four-day conference was organized by the Department of Management and Project Management and saw scores of academics in management and leadership presenting research papers.

Addressing the conference CPUT Vice-chancellor, Dr Prins Nevhutalu, encouraged the delegates to invite industry role players to their future conferences in order to become more attuned to world trends adding that as a career-focused institution, CPUT should continuously build rapport with industry leaders.

He emphasized the importance of research outputs stressing that the conference resonated with the university’s goal of becoming a great university.

“Research is fundamental to our journey towards greatness,” he said.

About 50 papers was presented by academics from Germany, India, Uganda, Nigeria, Zimbabwe as well as various parts of South Africa.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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Piercing forward with the university’s motto to create futures, the Department of Management and Project Management will deploy 200 students to 20 high schools in the Southern District of Cape Town.

This Service Learning Project, which the department will execute in collaboration with the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), is a pilot based on the success of a project run last year by students at the Lentegeur High School in Mitchells Plain.

The pilot project, which will see CPUT students tutor learners,  was launched on the Cape Town Campus recently, and this year’s theme is "Give a teen a dream."

Angela Buys, head of the Management and Project Management Department, says the project complements the WCED’s ‘Learners at risk’ project.

“We are very excited about the project,” she says.

WCED's Metro South District Director, Glen van Harte, says peer learning is one of the most effective methods of learning as the age difference between the students and the learners is marginal, and therefore they speak the same language and share similar life experiences.

“We rely heavily on your support,” Van Harte pleaded with the students.

Lecturer Irshaad Desai says 20 groups of students will be assigned to different schools and that students from universities in Germany and China will also participate in the project.

Anele Gebenga, one of the students who initiated the project at the Lentegeur High School, says the school’s pass rate improved from 64% to 84% after their intervention.

*WCED will provide meals for everyone participating in the project as well as logistical support.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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To prepare its students for the real world of work, the Department of Management and Project Management has challenged them to develop solutions to the business problems of a local company.

Besides getting marks for their involvement in the project, the B–Tech students stand a chance of winning up to R48 000 as well as possible employment from Paarl Coldset Cape Town of Novus Holdings.

Paarl Coldset is one of the leading newsprint companies in South Africa, which offers fast, economical printing on uncoated paper.

When the company’s Production Manager, Hugo van Eyssen, contacted the department to involve students in its waste re-use project, they grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

“We are excited about the prospects and challenges that this project poses to the department,” said HOD Angela Buys, during the project’s launch on Cape Town Campus recently.

Buys added that the project will afford the students the opportunity to transfer and apply the theoretical knowledge into the workplace.

“It allows them to cross the boundaries of the two knowledge areas, namely the theoretical and contextual.”

She said the year-long project will also enhance the attributes of the university’s envisaged graduates.  

According to Van Eyssen, waste re-use is the process of converting generated waste into a new product, creating a secondary income for the business.

PARTNERS IN BUSINESS: From right, Paarl Coldset’s Production Manager, Hugo van Eyssen, HOD: Management and Project Management, Angela Buys, with her department’s lecturers during the project’s launch

The student groups will participate in a competition to create a new product using the company’s solid waste, and will be expected to present their researched solutions in October.

The top three groups will walk away with prize monies of R24 000, R16 000 and R8 000, respectively.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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Consistent with CPUT’s resolve to expose its students to the world of work, the Department of Management and Project Management teamed up with industry and challenged its students to come up with solutions to address Paarl Coldset’s waste problem.

For presenting their solutions, three of the BTech student groups walked away with cash prizes to the tune of R48 000.

Paarl Coldset, one of the leading newsprint companies in the country, generates 1 200kg of plastic and 60 – 70 tons of paper waste every month.

The students were therefore asked to devise ideas for re-using it (up-cycling), said lecturer Stanley Fore, who co-ordinated the project with lecturers Nobuhle Luphondo, Jephita Matande and Irshaad Desai.

“The project enabled students to generate feasible solutions of up-cycling the waste to create a secondary profitable business with limited capital expenditure as well as promoted academy-industrial partnership.”

To encourage participation and innovation in the project, last year the department divided its BTech students into about 40 teams which were awarded marks in various subjects for the related tasks they executed, added Fore.

After the groups presented their solutions recently, an adjudicating panel comprising of academics and Paarl Coldset management awarded cash prizes as follows:

First prize of R24 000 went to the group which looked into producing recycled pencils;

Second prize of R16 000 went to the group which explored generating electricity and;

Third prize of R8 000 went to the group which investigated producing sanitary towels.

“We achieved our goal of giving the students a chance to link theory with industry and we hope that other companies would come on board.”

RUNNERS UP: Paarl Coldset management with the group of students who walked away with R16 000 after coming second in the Paarl Coldset Project Management Challenge.

RUNNERS UP: Paarl Coldset management with the group of students who walked away with R8 000 third prize.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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History was recently made as the Department of Management and Project Management capped its first cohort of students, graduating under the new programme which is named the Management Development Programme (MDP).

The Department of Management and Project Management designed a short course programme as a third-stream income with the assistance of the Centre for Professional and Personal Development (CPPD). Acting Head of the Department of Management and Project Management, Nobuhle Luphondo, says the programme has been designed according to Council on Higher Education (CHE) guidelines, to allow candidates who completed the programme successfully to articulate into Diploma in Management via Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). Luphondo says the programme has been aligned with the mainstream Diploma in Management outcomes so that candidates can apply for credits via RPL when applying to articulate into the mainstream programme. The programme is administered through the SCOE of the Graduate Centre for Management, the Faculty of Business and Management Sciences’ (FBMS) short course entity.

“The MDP aims to equip practicing managers and supervisors with knowledge and applied competencies in the fields of: Management; Financial Management; Project Management & Industrial Relations and Labour Law,” she remarks. The first cohort of 20 candidates was funded by Education, Training and Development Practices (ETDP) SETA. This group started with classes in January 2022 and completed last exams in November 2022.

Addressing the graduates, motivational speaker and Learning and Development Manager, Shahieda Hendricks said: “You’re the first group to complete this programme, with all the hard work and sacrifices, you didn’t give up. That gives us joy to do our job. And I am very proud that you came this far… And you can be proud that you actually pulled through. You need to say to yourself, well done. Don’t stop here, never stop learning. You will achieve great things in life.”

Luphondo says the event was the certificate ceremony to celebrate the successful completion of the programme for the candidates. “They had to sacrifice three hours to four days a week, for 10 months to complete the programme. It was not easy; the programme is very comprehensive, but the candidates were resilient until the end.”

She says the highlights of the event was to see the candidates so excited to receive the certificates, and that their partners attended to celebrate this success with them.

“They could see that the three hours was worth it after all.”

She also mentions that programme had its challenges since it was the first cohort. “We had teething issues, but these candidates were committed and dedicated to completing the programme. Some may be applying for Diploma in Management via RPL. We are looking forward to mentor them until they complete the Diploma,” she continues.

“It was the first of its kind, and we hope to sign up more candidates for the programme. We are now completing the Printing SA cohort group as well; and they will graduate in July 2023. The department is working hard to get more requests from industries.”

Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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