LIMPOPO – THE Armaments Corporation of South Africa (Armscor) awarded bursaries to 12 female computer science students at the University of Limpopo (UL) following their impressive academic records over the past year.
The bursaries would cover tuition fees, books, accommodation and meals as well as psychosocial support in the form of counselling to those who might experience social and academic challenges.
According to Japisa Khosa, senior manager of learning and talent development at Armscor, the bursary programme was inspired by the National Development Plan’s vision-2030 which aimed to address the technology needs of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and that of high priority national objectives such as education, technology creation and exploitation, employment equity, economic growth and sustainable job creation.
Khosa said it also aimed to address the acute shortage of engineers, scientists and technicians within the defence industry.
The bursary scheme, implemented over the past few years, targeted students with high potential to succeed academically and gain acceptance in selected areas of science and engineering that were critically important for the defence industry, she said.
Khosa urged bursary recipients to work hard to improve their futures. She further said the funding was renewable provided that students progressed to the next level.
She added that they thanked the university for the opportunity to grant them the space to bring visibility to the organisation’s efforts of addressing the shortage of technical skills in the defence industry.
Simon Ramalepe, acting head for the department of computer science at UL, added that his department had no room for academic failure.
“I would like to express my appreciation towards Armscor for awarding our female students with bursaries for the 2015 academic year and beyond.
“This is a key step to the successful realisation of their dreams. We understand that there could have been better students from other universities elsewhere but the fact that they chose us is is highly appreciated.”
