UJ's new research and innovation chairs to tackle 4IR

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The new fully funded research and innovation chairs are headed by Prof Arnesh Telukdarie, Associate Professor: Postgraduate School of Engineering Management, and Prof Tankiso Moloi, Deputy Head: School of Accounting.

The Chair creates the platform to consolidate his research work on the highest level, focusing on 4IR and Food and Beverage, says Prof Telukdarie, who will chair the FoodBev Manufacturing SETA. “The research includes technology, people, utility and other considerations in delivery of optimisation for the sector. The research adopts a technology-centric approach to modeling business with due considerations of 4IR, skills of the future, systems, business integration and the needs of SA.”

For Prof Moloi, the research and innovation chair in “Education, Training and development Practices SETA" is an exciting venture. “This sector is important in preparing and moulding human capital so that it enters the labour market ready to deliver in its demands. Further, this sector hones skills for already engaged human capital with the view of making sure that they remain competitive and relevant to the labour market.”

“The convergence of technologies such as Robotics, VR and AI, amongst others, would require different set of skills for economic agents. Therefore, in-order for the ETDP SETA to prepare itself, it requires high quality research that will provide it with data and indicators to be used as a base in understanding the implication/s of 4IR on it.”

“We think the main driver of fitness and agility of the ETD sector primarily hinges on its ability to gather, analyse and understand the labour market intelligence. This allows the sector to identify and get insights such as what set of skills the labour market generally requires and which of these skills are deemed by the market to be scarce and critical. The establishment of the ETDP SETA Research Chair is to determine the 4IR implications on the ETD sector,” concluded Prof Moloi.

The SETA is mandated to promote and facilitate the delivery of education, training and development in order to enhance the skills profile of the Education, Training and Development (ETD) sector and contribute to the creation of employment opportunities especially for those previously disadvantaged.