admin
Blended Education College of Southern Africa (BECSA) occupies a unique position in the human capital development space.
The college prides itself of key departments that drive effective and efficient service delivery.
Quality Management Systems (QMS) department is one such department which ensures college complies with associate status requirements and standards with University of Zimbabwe and also that of Ministry of Higher, Tertiary Education, Science and Technological Development.
The QMS Officer at BECSA Retired Lt Colonel J Mudzingwa who comes with a wealth of experience in education administration from schools levels to group level and holds a Masters in Education Administration (Med) had this to say,
“We believe that quality enhancement and assurance is essential in driving the education and training institution, otherwise learning and teaching processes become disjointed.
BECSA has from the onset embarked on ISO 9001:2015 Certification journey for both the Teacher Education and Polytechnic wings. The quality management system (QMS) at BECSA is a sum of all its business processes focused on consistently meeting customer requirements and enhancing their satisfaction.
The seven-phased QMS process approach to quality management will cascade from the teacher to the key stakeholder, the learner at a primary school out there and eventually to the community.
We are set to strike another first by being the first ISO certified education institute in the country and hope to achieve this feat before our first class graduates in 2022. That is a key performance indicator for my function and a major deliverable for the entire college operations.”
In line with these robust systems, The Library and Archival Services department has been set up as a knowledge reservoir and research centre. It is not confined to brick and mortar but extends to an interactive virtual library.
The main library is situated at BECSA main campus along George Silundika. Growth and expansion of satellite branches across Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces is underway and the virtual library will bridge the gap together with the usage of infrastructure from strategic partners like Zimta with whom BECSA has MoUs .
The Librarian, Mr Bert Moyo a Nust graduate in Library and Information Science and current Masters student said, “The mandate of BECSA Libraries and Archival Services is to provide fit for purpose knowledge products. BECSA library and Archival Services unit will produce flexible, diverse, and user-centred knowledge products, information services and resources.”
The Information Technology department is the nerve centre of all the activities at the college. One of its main features is a complementary Internet garden and open interstellar for recreational and educational purposes set for student’s engagement, interaction, chat and socialisation, this is a space where electronic resources are available.
This department is crucial in maintaining a user friendly and vibrant learner management system as well as an efficient student database management system- which will separate the college from the rest.
The college is committed to exploring new ground to change the service delivery terrain in higher education and training in Southern Africa.
“In essence an institution of higher learning can no longer be measured just by the presence of a well resourced human capital base but also the quality, relevance and currency of service delivery — such is the BECSA way as it opens its door for students in May 2019,” said Charles Moyo the systems administrator.
Charles went on to show diagrammatically how the IT department links all the seven processes of QMS processes.
At BECSA the student is the client and focus is on the student as the everything revolves around processes that need to the client satisfaction. At BECSA there is a new adage that goes, “thinking outside the outside of the box”.
Online Reporter