By SchoolMedia
South African school media and youth engagement company SchoolMedia (Pty) Ltd has signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding with the College of Civil Engineering and Transportation at Yangzhou University in China, creating a new platform for cooperation in civil engineering, transport, green construction, student training and applied infrastructure research.
The agreement follows a July 2026 visit by SchoolMedia representatives to Yangzhou, where the parties held discussions on practical cooperation between China and South Africa in areas linked to infrastructure development, engineering education and technology transfer.
The timing matters. South Africa continues to face deep infrastructure pressure, from roads and stormwater systems to municipal maintenance and the need for stronger technical capacity. China, in turn, has become a major centre of engineering research, construction technology and infrastructure delivery. This agreement creates a formal route for the two countries to share knowledge in areas where the need is no longer theoretical.
For South Africa, the practical value of the MOU lies in its focus on skills and application. The agreement will support training for students, engineers, municipal officials and built-environment professionals, while opening access to research in road engineering, green construction, smart transport, BIM and resilient infrastructure. For students, it creates the possibility of short courses, degree study, scholarship support, Chinese language preparation and future exchange routes linked to real infrastructure projects.
Under the agreement, the parties will explore joint research in structural safety, disaster prevention, green building materials, road engineering, smart transport, prefabricated construction, Building Information Modelling, geotechnical engineering and sustainable urban planning. The MOU also provides for possible technology licensing, distribution, joint development and local manufacturing linked to Yangzhou University’s engineering research, with a focus on use in South Africa and broader African markets.
“South Africa does not only need infrastructure investment. It needs skills, technical partnerships and practical routes for young people to connect with the industries that will shape the country,” says Khethi Ngwenya, Founder and Managing Director of Schoolmedia. “This agreement gives us a way to link education, engineering and real-world project experience. It also opens a door for South African students, professionals and municipalities to engage with Chinese expertise in a structured way.”
A key part of the MOU is talent development. Yangzhou University may select graduates and postgraduate students for work experience or internships in South Africa, while SchoolMedia may recommend South African technical professionals, municipal engineering managers, architects, cost engineers and students for short courses or degree programmes at Yangzhou University. The agreement also allows for scholarship support and Chinese language preparation.
The parties will also explore a “2+2” dual degree pathway, joint postgraduate training, credit recognition and the creation of practical training bases in both countries. One proposed outcome is the establishment of a Yangzhou University overseas engineering practice base at South African project sites, alongside a South African infrastructure and engineering talent training centre in China.
The agreement also includes plans to jointly apply for and establish a China-South Africa Belt and Road Joint Laboratory on Civil Engineering and Green Construction. The proposed laboratory would focus on the durability of infrastructure materials under extreme climate conditions, low-carbon building materials, construction industrialisation, transport infrastructure planning and resilient cities.
“This is the kind of partnership that becomes useful when it moves beyond ceremony,” says Ngwenya. “The goal is to connect research with practical delivery. Roads, schools, stormwater systems, buildings and municipal infrastructure are all part of people’s daily lives. Better skills and better technology can make a visible difference.”
The agreement also provides for academic visits, joint lectures, seminars, shared engineering case studies, technical standards work and the possible development of technical guides or academic publications.
The agreement reflects Yangzhou University’s growing international engagement and its interest in applying civil engineering and green construction research in developing markets. For South Africa, it speaks to a pressing local issue: how the country builds the technical capacity, partnerships and project pipelines needed to improve infrastructure outcomes.
Yangzhou University is one of Jiangsu Province’s key comprehensive universities. It has 32 colleges and offers 127 undergraduate programmes across 13 disciplines. The university also lists three national key disciplines, 62 doctoral programmes and 254 master’s programmes. Its College of Civil Engineering and Transportation has a first-level doctoral programme and master’s programme in Civil Engineering, with research strengths in structural safety, road and transport engineering, green building materials, intelligent construction, BIM, prefabricated building structures, engineering management and architectural design.
For SchoolMedia, the partnership marks an expansion of its role from school-based media and youth engagement into education-linked infrastructure cooperation. Founded in 2010, SchoolMedia describes itself as South Africa’s largest youth marketing agency. It is a 100% youth black-owned company with Level 1 B-BBEE status and works with schools, brands and communities across the country. The company says it has the capacity to reach more than 9,000 public schools in South Africa, with access to more than six million young people and 190,000 teachers.
Source: Novus Group – Press Bulletin
