Prof. Thandwa Mthembu, Vice-Chancellor and Principal at CUT and Mr Wayne Adams, COO of the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority (merSETA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at CUT today (27 February 2014). 

“The merSETA is comfortable that Central University of Technology, Free State has the capacity, the capital and human resources as well as skills to ensure that this investment yields sterling results for both parties. It should therefore be clear to all here today that the investment of R6 million in the next three years is well invested in this partnership. We at merSETA, are therefore proud and enthusiastic in signing this agreement and look forward to working with the university as well as other partners and beneficiaries in ensuring its success,” said Mr Wayne Adams. The historic occasion is seen as an important course of action for developing a strategic partnership between the two parties as well as an alignment to the National Strategy of Government and Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET) commitment to bridge the current skills gap in engineering fields. This is an outcome of talks that were held at CUT to discuss the important role that the University could play within the Further Education Training College (FETC) sector and Technology Education Colleges in the Central Region (Free State and Northern Cape Provinces). In his statement of the Agreement, Prof. Mthembu said “I have three stories to tell, the good, the bad, and the best story. The bad story is that over 3, 4 million youth between the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed or out of school, the good story is, in 2009, the DHET brought the SETAs, Universities and FET colleges together so that they can collaborate more and more. The best story is that the Minister of the Department of Higher Education and Training, Mr Blade Nzimande, launched the white paper (Post School Education and Training Policy) just six weeks ago to address the bad story and six weeks later, CUT and merSETA are implementing the programme.” 

The two parties are to work in consultation with one another on conceptualisation, development and support for the DHET Post-school Education and Training Policy, including:

• Providing and advancing access of youth to further training and higher education institutions in the Central Region through articulation of offerings and programmes of FET colleges into CUT;
• Advancing Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) in FET colleges in the two provinces;
• Continuous professional development of FET Lecturers and technical school teachers in STEM;
• Advancing STEM among female students in FET colleges in the two provinces;
• Supporting the national agenda of increasing the pool of graduates in scarce STEM subjects and broadening access of female students in STEM fields.

R6-million has been invested in the project for the purpose of establishing the merSETA Chair in Engineering Development at CUT from 2014 to 2016. 

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Theory and practical experience are both key aspects of CUT's Engineering students.