ABSTRACT
South African additive manufacturing is increasingly observed as an indispensable strategic component of INDUSTRIE 4.0 development. The South African government plans to implement this through its proposed white paper for Science, Technology & Innovation. Challenges identified highlights skills training, formal educational programs and implementation as developmental needs. Existing resources, syllabi and infrastructure for educational technology subjects are outdated. Substantial funding has been invested to provide infrastructure, but very limited focus was placed on formal advanced manufacturing education. This is aggravated by overburdened curricula, unskilled educators in technology and understaffed schools, creating time constraints. As part of an ongoing study, this paper investigates pedagogical solutions to address these limitations through the Idea2Product laboratories, which supply educators with support material and extensive training. Positive solutions are indicated to infiltrate present curricula without extensive disruption. Obstacles are also identified that may disrupt the assimilation of these science, technology & innovation objectives.
