UKZN Built Environment Honours Students conduct skills audit among homeless

Brandstories|Published 1 year ago

Dr Mvuselelo Ngcoya (centre), UKZN Academic Leader and Associate Professor, with some of the Honours students who helped conduct the skills audit. Photo: Supplied

By Sinoyolo Mahlasela

Dr Mvuselelo Ngcoya, Academic Leader and Associate Professor in the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s (UKZN) School of Built Environment and Development Studies, recently took a field trip to the Durban CBD with members of his Honours class to conduct a skills audit among the homeless.

Ngcoya said comprehension of real-life policy implications is an integral part of his pedagogical approach to this course. As such, he develops partnerships with various thinkers, practitioners and organisations working on the themes pertinent to the module.

As part of his teaching strategy, he took his students to two private homeless shelters in the city to participate in interviews with the homeless being conducted by City People researchers. “I am hoping to inspire students to make the connections between the theoretical matter we read in class and their implications for society,” he said.

One of Ngcoya’s students, Anele Mchunu said these types of events accommodate a different style of learning for students who struggle to follow classroom learning and need visual stimulation for better understanding. During the interviews, she discovered that many homeless people no longer have the means to improve their lives because of the crippling effects of living on the streets.

Some of the members of the homeless community who participated in the interviews conducted by City People researchers at the House of Life community project premises. Photo: Supplied.

Ngcoya said that the audit had revealed that many homeless people have various skills and educational qualifications, and can contribute to society. “While drug addiction was a problem for many of them, learning about how they were slowly absorbed into the world of substance abuse was also quite revealing.”

Ngcoya proposed the utilisation of vacant state-owned buildings to address issues of homelessness; adding that a “lack of political will and policy, colonial and apartheid bylaws as well as our collective negative attitude towards the homeless, are all key contributors to this problem”.