Since its opening in 2015, the Faculty of Veterinary Science's Skills Laboratory has excelled in various ways and has already proved to be a valuable asset to the Faculty. Some of the recent highlights include the following: 

Reimagine Education Award

The project “Development, validation and implementation of in house manufactured veterinary models for innovative teaching of clinical skills” was recently announced the “Bronze winner for the category Regional Awards: Africa” at the Wharton- QS Stars Reimagine Education Awards & Conference 2015, which took place in Philadelphia, USA from 7 to 9 December 2015. The project was shortlisted out of more than 500 submitted projects from around the world on pedagogical innovation in higher education to enhance employability, and the awards are seen as the “Oscars” of higher education (http://www.reimagine-education.com). A ten minute presentation was given at the conference on the project by the Head of the Skills Laboratory, Dr Annett Annandale. The Wharton-QS Stars Reimagine Education conference has brought some of the world’s most influential educational figures, companies, and universities together. Over 300 delegates met in Philadelphia to discuss innovation in higher education, consider ways to improve pedagogy and employability, and reward the best projects that aim to do so. Among the attendees were for example William Rankin, Director of Learning at Apple and Jaime Casap, Chief Education Evangelist at Google.

Invest conference

The Skills Laboratory is proud to announce that a bid to host the fifth InVest - International Veterinary Simulation in Teaching - conference was successful. InVest represents an international group of veterinary educators dedicated to promoting and advancing the use of simulation in veterinary education. Previous conferences have been held by the Veterinary schools at Colorado State University, University of Calgary, Ross University and Hannover University. This conference has provided an international forum for learning and networking between researchers, developers and educational institutions on the rapidly growing use of simulation in veterinary education while encouraging research regarding its use and effectiveness. The event will take place on 10-12 April 2017. More information on InVest can be found on www.vetedsimulation.com 

Skills lab community engagement project

A vision of the skills laboratory in 2015 was to train young South Africans from local communities in model development and to transfer mould making, manufacturing and business skills, as part of the University’s community engagement. A grant application through HWSeta was successful and enabled the start of the training program on 1 February 2016. The aim is to register two business corporates at the end of the eight week training program. These business corporates will be able to manufacture the in-house developed veterinary teaching models and supply these to the skills laboratory as well as other institutions. In a country facing very high unemployment rates amongst the youth, this project will hopefully create permanent positions in a sustainable work environment, leading to independent income generation for the participants. The training program is led by the laboratory's artist, Ms Liezl Kok and is already in full swing!