Winner Young Water Professionals Wetskills at WISA: Businesswise training development and delivery

Winner Young Water Professionals Wetskills at WISA:

Businesswise training development and delivery

At the gala dinner at WISA the winner announced of the Wetskills Challenge South Africa 2014. The winning team was team no. 3: businesswise training and development and delivery. Four young water professionals climbed the stage to collect their award:  Erin Parenzee who delivered the pitch, Nthabiseng Masehla, Mashudu Tharanga all from South Africa and Maarten van der Meer from the Netherlands

Earlier on Tuesday 27 May the young water professionals presented their innovative concepts and plans at the WISA conference in Mbombela Stadium. Nearly 20 students from the Netherlands, Mozambique and South Africa had been working on different case studies since 19 May when they started their Wetskills Challenge South Africa with a brain hurricane on four specific water issues in Southern Africa.

Four water cases

All the participants divided into four teams and challenged to come up with out-of-the-box solutions. Their young minds tapped into to come up with innovative ideas on:

Team	Sponsor	Case name / field	Study area in South Africa
1	Rand Water	Efficient and cost effective solutions to address water and sanitation challenges	Rural areas of Mpumalanga Province
2	Centre of Expertise	Transforming waste from a waste water treatment plant into business	Durban metropolis
winner	World Water Academy	Businesswise training development and delivery	South Africa
4	Water Board Groot Salland	Designing a Smart Water App for farmers, citizens, water managers and perhaps even Kruger National Park	All over the world

Winning Case no. 3: Businesswise training development and delivery

Vocational training can bridge the gap between academic training and the responsibilities ‘on-the-job’. Several Dutch initiatives in South Africa focus on capacity development. However, these projects mainly based on Dutch funding resources. If training is important in South Africa, it has an added value. This value translated into money. World Water Academy in the Netherlands would like the Young Water Professionals to make a business model for development and delivery of practical training. Key element should be the self-supportiveness of the model.

Wetskills South Africa 2014

Waterskills Water Challenge is a program under the umbrella of Human Capital Water & Delta Program and is organised by Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP), in cooperation with Royal Netherlands Water Network and other partners within the water sector.

Rand Water Board, NWP, WISA, SA Young Water Professionals, Waterschap Groot Salland & Hydrologic, H2Oost, the Centre of Expertise in Durban (a cooperation of Vitens-Evides and eThekwini Water & Sanitation) and the World Water Academy support this Wetskills Water Challenge South Africa 2014.

Wetskills worldwilde

More than 250 students and young professionals have participated in twelve Wetskills Water Challenges since 2010:

1.       World Expo 2010 Shanghai in China

2.       400-year economic relations in Morocco (2010)

3.       International Water Week in The Netherlands (2011)

4.       Delta Summit in Indonesia (2011)

5.       Royal visit of the Dutch Queen in Oman (2012)

6.       WISA conference in South Africa (2012)

7.       Bilateral meeting of Egyptian and Dutch experts in Egypt (2012)

8.       ExpoApa water exhibition and conferences in Romania (2013)

9.       Launch of PLAMA - water platform in Mozambique (2013)

10.   International Water Week / Industrial Leader Forum in The Netherlands (2013)

11.   Water Seminar Wittenberg Council - official Dutch government delegation to Israel, headed by Dutch Prime Minister Rutte (2013)

12.   WISA conference in South Africa (2014)

13.   Canadian Water Summit in Toronto (June 2014)