Personal Profile of  Nokuphila Nkosi

 Nokuphila Nkosi has this academic background.

  • Msc in Ergonomics from Loughborough University of Technology in the UK,
  • Mini MBA from Joseph Business School in Chicago
  • Honors degree in Industrial Psychology from Wits University,
  • B Admin degree from the University of the North and
  • Diploma in Change Management, from Louw Du Toit and Associates;
  • International Management and Development consultants

 For her MSC in Ergonomics courses attended includes:-

  • Occupational health and Safety
    Ergonomics for physical environment:- includes topics in Noise measurements and control; Heat and cold stress measurements and control; air temperature; humidity measurements and control; how to identify and control glare and illumination problems etc. we covered everything that has to do with physical environments risks and how to control such risks
  • Ergonomics Workplace design
  • Office Ergonomics
  • Ergonomics and system failures:- How to deal with human error, accidents and emergencies etc
  • Work System Design
  • Behavioral based Safety
  • Ergonomics for the disabled and aging:- designing work environments and products to meet the needs of disabled and elderly [Accessibility Issues]
  • Ergonomics in transport:- Rail safety, road safety and aviation safety
  • Product innovation and development;- Designing of all work and consumer products for usability; safety; effectiveness; pleasure and efficiency
  • Project Management

Nokuphila is a certified ergonomist.

 Nokuphila has extensive experience in the field of Ergonomics.

She was one of the first ten students to be awarded the prestigious Nelson Mandela Scholarship which is aimed at raising future leaders by offering them an opportunity to go and study overseas as well as gain experience with the intention of bringing back experience and skills learned and plough back to South Africa. She got exposure in ergonomics in the UK both practically and by living in the country. Areas where she gained experience include: – Ergonomics for disabled and elderly She did projects on environment/ ergonomics assessment and accessibility for disabled and elderly, as a result she gained knowledge on different types of disability, disability needs, type of assistive devices available and how to select different devices to meet the needs of the disabled. She also has knowledge and experience in the designing of work places, Office Ergonomics, control rooms and call centers, work stations, physical environments which includes incorporating needs’ of disabled and elderly in design of the build Environment, Has extensive knowledge on how to reduce noise, heat stress, cold stress and illumination problems in the work place
She also did a lot of research projects in the UK on product innovation, designing consumer products for usability. She managed and handled the ergonomics part by herself in the projects. This enabled her to gain experience in experimental design, conducting focus and user trial experiments, analyzing results and providing information acquired to the rest of the product innovation team.

Prior to studying Ergonomics, She worked in Human Resources and has experience in the following areas, Organizational Change and Development, Industrial Relations, Personnel Management, Recruitment and Selection, training and Employee Well being [EAP]. She worked as a Manager for Change Management and was involved in a Change intervention for introducing an SAP system in Spoornet.
She then moved to their Risk management department and also acquired experience in the field of Risk Management in Rail services in areas of Risk Assessment and development of Safety Management Standards and Guidelines for improving employee safety in the workplace as well as implementation of safety Management Systems as per OSHA Act. She has extensive knowledge on occupational health and safety of workers. She also gained experience in area of Transport Systems through her involvement and work in Spoornet and Transwerk.

In addition to that, she has experience in the field of research and experimental design. One of her research work was published in the South African Journal of Psychology of 1993 Vol 23(3) Page 145-148
She has a lot of experience in policy development, strategy development and development of procedures and action plans to support the policy, she has developed a lot of policy and procedures, action plans in Human Resources and Occupational Health and Safety

Recent work done includes:- development of Ergonomics and Health and Safety training materials which was accredited by Health and Safety Welfare SETA; Strategy Development; Policy Development; Ergonomics assessment; Health & Safety Training/ Facilitation and Consultation, Ergonomics Training and Facilitation and Consultation; developments of Ergonomics standards and safety requirements for Pedestrian safety and the disabled in Johannesburg; Office Ergonomics Design Layout; Guest lectured at Wits University on Ergonomics of Workplace Design and Ergonomics of Tool Design. One of the speakers in an Ergonomics workshop/conference organized by National Institute for Occupational Health and spoke on Office Ergonomics, A guest speaker on Ergonomics and Disability Mainstreaming organized by Gauteng Social Development Department. She just finalized project on Ergonomics assessment and design of a control room for Eskom

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