High school students – 18 girls and 18 boys – are being given insights into how to make their living from the solar industry while they attend a winter school at the Wilberforce Community College (WCC) in Evaton, Gauteng, from 25 June to 13 July.
While living on the WCC campus for three weeks, the students are being trained on how to build a photovoltaic system. They are also learning to develop a business plan for an SME entering the solar industry.
Engineer instructors from the University of Johannesburg and Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta in the USA are conducting the technical training while members of the Sustainable Energy Society of Southern Africa (SESSA) share their business knowledge and experience.
SESSA Ombudsman, Carel Ballack, says the organisation has been looking forward to working alongside the Georgia Institute of Technology to share knowledge with South Africa’s future businessmen and women.
“One of SESSA’s goals is to promote the use of sustainable energies through education,” he says, “so this initiative is an ideal match. By participating, we are not only showing how solar energy can make a difference socially and environmentally, we are demonstrating that it can also provide someone with a sustainable business. In a country that needs all the jobs it can get, this is a step forward.”
Working in teams, which include one of the nine teachers also participating in the course, the students are responsible for building and installing a low-maintenance solar-powered system at a local home. This system needs to meet that home’s electricity requirements for lighting and cell phone recharging.
As the key protagonist of the programme, the Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta’s mission is to develop young global engineering leaders. Douglas Edwards, an engineer from the Institute involved with the programme, says: “This project exposes the students to the fields of engineering, appropriate technology and entrepreneurship.
“The students in Evaton will partner, via the Internet and teleconferencing, with high school students at an identical Summer Institute at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. In this way, we hope to foster a culture of knowledge transfer and sharing of information that will benefit both groups in the future.”
In addition to SESSA, sponsors and partners of the Engineering Institute include: AME – Service and Development Agency (AME-SADA), Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT) Engineering Outreach Department, International Research and Capacity Building Foundation (IRACB), Nineteenth Episcopal District AME Church, Southern Tailors Flag and Banner Company Atlanta, GA, Sojourn Advisory Services,
Sustainable Energy Technology and Research Centre (SeTAR), Technology Innovations Agency (TIA) Department of Science, Tshwane University of Technology Industrial Engineering (TUT), University of Johannesburg (UJ) Engineering and the Built Environment, Dr. Hasan Crockett Morehouse College, and The Crockett Group, LLC.
For more information contact SESSA, +27 (0)11 513 4071, [email protected], www.sessa.org.za
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