Wits Plus is reimagining professional development, driven by an understanding that industries change and learning doesn’t stop at graduation.
Three years is a long time in the world of work, especially for an already qualified professional. And as environments change, careers progress and disruptive technologies emerge, many of the skills learned in the lecture halls and classrooms of a three-year university degree need to be updated – or deepened without having to add an additional three years. To meet that challenge, Wits University has launched Wits Plus, a professional development company that consolidates short courses from across the university.
‘Most universities are focused on a linear degree programme,’ says Natalie Zimmelman, CEO of Wits Plus. ‘First, second, third year, postgraduate… The traditional model is step by step, nice and neat. But Wits is more progressive than most universities, and it understands that learning is not linear.’
Wits Plus forms part of Wits University’s overall teaching and learning suite, which also includes full- and part-time studies, contact teaching, online programmes. Wits Plus offers hundreds of short courses, across dozens of industries, catering to every career level- whether you’re a new hire, a mid-career manager or a seasoned executive. And while many of the courses are highly specialised and require advanced NQF qualifications, Wits Plus also offers more general and some beginner courses that require only a National Senior Certificate.
‘Most of our courses are intended for specialists who are further specialising or keeping up with what’s happening in their industries,’ says Zimmelman. ‘That is very much needed, and it’s where Wits University can offer true value.’
Wits is known for its cutting-edge research teams, which specialise in key industries like mining, medicine, and digital technology. ‘Our faculty includes top-level thinkers, working at that super-specialised level,’ Zimmelman says. ‘To take just one example, if we’re talking about artificial intelligence and large language models, we have Procession Benjamin Rosman, who is one of the top 100 thinkers in the world, sitting in our School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, which has created two new courses on Foundations of Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models.’
Wits Plus currently runs between 300 and 400 courses per year, with dozens more in development, hundreds more active, and several thousand more approved and in the system. The focus, always, is on real-world relevance – and to ensure that, Wits Plus has enabled a quick, six- to eight-week quality assurance and approval process through the University for new courses.
‘Two months may sound like a long time in the business world, but in the university ecosystem – where a degree can take no less than three years to develop – eight weeks is miraculous,’ says Zimmelman. ‘The University’s short course subcommittee meets and reviews new short courses on a monthly basis, but before that the course will already have gone through the relevant school and faculty. We are proud of the thoroughness of our processes.’
Wits University has been ranked the No. 1 university in Africa in the 2026 Center for World University Rankings, placing 200th globally and in the top 1% of universities worldwide. The richness and depth of its resources unparalleled – and, through Wits Plus, those resources are now being used to create accessible, deeply relevant and highly specialised short courses that promote lifelong learning and skills development.
‘Our aim with Wits Plus is to be agile, responsive, current and relevant,’ Zimmelman concludes. ‘And, of course, to bring to bear the unbelievable intellectual property that sits within the Wits University ecosystem.’
