from NKHENSANI NKUNA in Tzaneen
TZANEEN – WITH bridging the digital divide the big prize, the Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority (CHIETA) recently launched a R3 million smart skills centre at the Modjadji campus of Letaba Tvet College.
Smart skills meeting room
The facility is not only for the use of the college but also for residents of Greater Letaba Municipality, especially those residing at Kgapane, where the centre is situated.
The facility comes with three virtual reality pods, 20 workstations with PCs, a smart boardroom, and a meeting room.
Services at the centre are offered free of charge. Residents utilise wifi, PC’s while small and upcoming businesses hold meetings at the smart boardrooms.
Yershen Pillay, the chief executive of CHIETA, said the facility was the first smart skills centre in the province.
“We live in the digital era, if you don’t understand digital, you are irrelevant. We hope the community will take full advantage of this opportunity,” said Pillay.
He said the centre brings hope to the local community, in which most young people are unemployed and lack digital skills. During the launch learners from Mohlatlego Machaba High School, were given a chance to experience virtual reality.
The centre also offers different courses such as data analytics to anyone interested, at no cost.
Campus coordinator, Ditebogo Dikgale, said although this was a great platform for the local community, many people still couldn’t believe that they could receive such services for free.
“We will soon be visiting local schools to inform them about our centre so that many of our people can have access to digital platform. The project was a partnership between CHIETA, Department of Higher Education and Letaba Tvet College,” Dikgale said.
– CAJ News
