The Innovation Hub's CoachLabTM awarded ISETT-SETA's Excellence Award for Leadership Development.

	CEO of ISETT-SETA, Oupa Mopaki hands over the certificate to Dr Jill Sawers, Manager of CoachLab, while Acting CEO of The Innovation Hub, Tsietsi Maleho, looks on.

CoachLabTM, a leadership development programme for post-graduates managed by The Innovation Hub, received an award from the Information Systems, Electronics and Telecommunications Technology SETA (ISETT-SETA). The award is in recognition of CoachLabTM's successful execution of its mandate as an Institute of Sectoral Or Occupational Excellence (ISOE) in the last year. The CEO of ISETT SETA, Oupa Mopaki handed over the award. "This is a proud moment in the history of CoachLab in that this is official recognition of the programme delivering on the much needed future industry leaders for our country. The graduates of this programme bear testimony to their "conversion" from "chilled out" students to responsible, accountable and entrepreneurial employees that will make a difference to their respective companies" says Dr Sawers, Manager of the CoachLabTM.

The CoachLabTM Programme offers "hands on" entrepreneurial training, leadership and learning opportunities to students focused on Information and Communication Technology (sectoral) studies, particularly for previously disadvantaged individuals, over a year-long period structured around action and project based learning to fast track the incorporation of graduates into the world of business (occupational). Last year 18 students graduated from the Programme - to date 86 postgraduates have participated in CoachLabTM.

Only two other institutions have been awarded with this certificate by ISETT SETA in the last two years, namely the Tshwane University of Technology and the Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering. "ISETT SETA's mandate is to appoint five ISOE's by the year 2010, possibly one annually as of 2005 and CoachLab has been appointed as the third" says Lihle Dlamini, Marketing and Communication Manager at ISETT SETA.

An ISOE is a provider institution that focuses on skills development and occupational area advancement within a sector. CoachLab has been recognised because of the following, but not limited to:

* Designing, developing, reporting on training in a specific sectoral or occupational area where scarce or critical skill have been identified;
* Stimulating workplace application scenarios and workplace practices to ensure a smooth transition onto the business environment;
* Providing technologically applicable equipment;
* Providing access to emerging best practises in training, regional and international training institutes and research bodies;
* Delivering training that meets industry demands with relevance and quality.

CoachLabTM has skilled a total of 86 students since it's inception in 2001 with the backing of devoted partners each sponsoring a student and contributing to in-house mentoring programmes and real-time projects. The partners are a combination of corporate, university institutions and ICT associated companies:

* Cisco Systems International BV,
* EPI-USE Systems (Pty) Ltd,
* ISETT SETA
* MTN (Pty) Ltd,
* Standard Bank of South Africa (Pty),
* The Resilience Group (Pty) Ltd,
* Tshwane University of Technology
* UNISA.
* University of Pretoria

Mape Modiba, a previous BCom Informatics student at University of Pretoria, is a protégé of CoachLabTM and is at present in the employ of EPI-USE as a Business Development Manager. He says the programme was an incredible opportunity and has added great value in paving his way to success. "The programme installed skills of leadership, responsibility and the ability to macro-manage myself to the professional I am today" says Modiba.

The CoachLabTM programme is ranked as an internship programme by the ISETT - SETA who have partnered in the programme from a skills development point of view. Companies who sponsor this initiative apply to their respective SETA's for funding of the internships.

The programme targets students who want to further their studies to a post-graduate level. Applications can be submitted to CoachLabTM by no later than October each year. They are required to undergo an interview as well as a psychometric test.

For more information, visit www.theinnovationhub.com