KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Professor Mary Metcalfe

Director General: Higher Education and Training

Mary Metcalfe is a former teacher, school principal, and college and university lecturer. She taught in the Department of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand, and was an Education Policy Analyst at the Centre for Education Policy Development (CEPD) before being appointed as Gauteng Member of the Executive Council (MEC) responsible for Education in the first democratic provincial government in Gauteng. In 1999, she was appointed MEC for Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Land Affairs. Prof Metcalfe is currently the Director-General, Higher Education and Training (from September 2009). She also holds the position visiting Adjunct Professor, The Graduate School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand.

Ms Metcalfe’s professional and academic qualifications include a diploma in Specialised Education and a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of the Witwatersrand. She has researched and been published on a variety of education topics, including Special Education, education transformation and governance. She played an important role in the shaping of the ANC’s education policy and in the Curriculum Technical Sub-Committee of the National Education and Training Forum.

Prof Metcalfe has served on many committees, both in her capacity as an educationist and as a political activist. She was national president of the South African Association for Learning and Educational Disabilities, and also served on the Black Sash Education Committee, the Free the Children Campaign, and the Detainees’ Parents Support Committee (DPSC). She played an important role in the All Schools for all People Campaign, sat on the Executive Committee of the National Education Co-ordinating Committee (Southern Transvaal), and was a member of the Gauteng Provincial Executive Committee of the ANC from 1992 – 2000. She currently heads the Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Land Affairs Policy Unit in the ANC in Gauteng.

Dr Oswald Franks

Chief Executive Officer: ECSA (Engineering Council of South Africa)

Brief CV
Dr Oswald Franks is the Chief Executive Officer of the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA), which is the official body dedicated to the regulation of the engineering profession in South Africa.

A registered mechanical engineer by profession, Dr Franks has broad industrial experience covering sectors such as mining, nuclear, military, steel fabrication, and petro-chemicals. Dr Franks spent twenty seven (27) years as an engineering educator and administrator and held the position of Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology from 2002 to 2009.

Dr Franks has been awarded four post-graduate degrees encompassing the engineering and business administration and quality management disciplines. A highlight of his academic career was the prestigious USAID funded scholarship which he was awarded for reading towards his Doctorate in Philosophy in Engineering Science from the University of South Florida in the United States of America.
He serves on a number of advisory boards, and government task and industry related teams - including the 2007 Ministerial Task Team appointed to investigate funding for Universities of Technology to increase engineering graduates.

Oswald, or Ossie as he is known to many, is widely travelled and has extensive knowledge of the global engineering education agenda and matters related to the regulation of the engineering profession. Dr Franks is passionate about developing the engineering profession to serve the broader interest of the nation and to be more representative in terms of gender and race.

Dr Raymond Patel

Chief Executive Officer: merSETA

Brief CV
Dr Raymond Patel has a PhD. in Education Management; he was a Teacher, Lecturer, Education Planner and a Vice Rector of in-service Education and Training with a strong emphasis on Mathematics, Science and Commerce. During 1994 he was appointed as Director Education and subsequently as acting Chief Director Arts Culture in the North-West Province. In 1999 Raymond completed his PhD focusing on Performance Management. He worked as a consultant in the areas of Skills Development and in 2003 was appointed as CEO of the CHIETA. He was appointed in October 2006 as the CEO of the merSETA.

He has over 26 years of experience in Education and Training. Dr. Patel has delivered numerous papers at various conferences focusing on skills and knowledge acquisition. He is passionate on the topic of skills development.

Dr. Patel serves on numerous Boards and is a member of the Umalusi Council.