Gert Sibande College (GS), located in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa has joined the Sakai Foundation as a member institution following deployment of Sakai as GS’s enterprise collaboration and learning platform.  This is exciting news as Gert Sibande is both the first Sakai adoption and foundation member among Further Education and Training colleges (FET)—academic institutions that provide vocational and occupational training vital to South Africa's economic development.

Gert Sibande has campuses located in Ermelo, Evander, Mpuluzi and Standerton.  GS's Sakai installation is intended to serve all four locations, although bandwidth and connectivity issues—a general South African challenge at present—prevent full access to the system.  Nevertheless, the provisioning of course sites with content is now underway, faculty workshops have been held and a number of lecturers have begun to use the system.

Gert Sibande partnered with Tecqle Information Technologies to implement Sakai and benefited from advice and support from other South African Sakai institutions, particularly the University of South Africa (UNISA).

For more information on Gert Sibande and its Sakai deployment, contact Shereen Dindar, GS Senior Education Specialist, at shereendindar@yahoo.co.uk.

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