SA Innovation Hub, Kenya TCC partner

DEVELOPMENT

South Africa’s Innovation Hub has formalized its strategic partnership with Kenya’s Training Centre in Communication (TCC).

Innovation Hub said in a statement that the partners will open a new satellite office at The Innovation Hub in Johannesburg to benefit universities, national and international research institutes and programmes in South Africa and the southern Africa sub-region.

The strategic partnership agreement, aimed at providing seminars and courses to postgraduate students, staff, faculty and outside participants to increase communication skills and create economic opportunities, was signed by The Innovation Hub CEO, McLean Sibanda, and the University of Nairobi Centre Manager, Joy Owango.

Sibanda said: “The signing of this bilateral agreement is a step in the right direction and important milestone in building a strong and active capacity in improving the exchange of information and knowledge skills to benefit the southern Africa sub-region. We will work with TCC in packaging the workshops and training programmes that will serve the educational development goals and enhance the capability for innovation and venture capital support in line with the Gauteng Employment and Development Strategy (GEDS).”

Professor Gabor Lovei, the Director of Training, said: “We are delighted to have formed this partnership and the opportunity to work with The Innovation Hub, and this agreement represents the cornerstone to achieve closer co-operation in improving the exchange of information and knowledge. This forms part of TCC’s mission to contribute to the increase in profile, locally and internationally, of African science, and its impact on the life of Africans, by improving skills in technical communication in all forms in African countries.

Under the MOU, The Innovation Hub, in conjunction with The Training Centre in Communication, will manage and co-ordinate courses to postgraduate students, staff, faculty and other interested parties at The Innovation Hub, South Africa, complete with a seminar style of training.

The first course to be facilitated under this partnership will be on Writing Grant Management and Oral Communication Presentation and Networking, and will be held in September 2012, at The Innovation Hub.