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Education Centre - Rewards of Further Training
Long before the tourism industry devised and adopted the BBEE
Charter concerning upliftment for the disadvantaged in 2004,
Nature Investments had already started out on cautious ventures
into the unfamiliar but very interesting field of educating
and training its loyal employees. |
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| Gondwana’s
educational efforts were started in 2001 by Miriam Spatz,
now the Marketing Manager, who simply took it upon herself
to teach the staff in her guest relations department
the basics of conversational German and the subtleties
of service techniques. Initially, others poked fun at
this endeavour. "Once they have acquired the skills
they will leave" – this remark was heard
frequently and in fact did not prove entirely wrong
either. But true to Gondwana’s philosophy of striving
for upliftment, a proper educational department with
teaching aids, its own budget and a dedicated full-time
staffer was set up when the company started to expand.
"You will only be successful if you make others
successful. If you are just out for your own success
you will fail." We chose this line as our motto. |
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Miriam Spatz with Thomas Nangolo und Job Shilongo. |
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Good ties were established with
a variety of enterprises and institutions offering a wide
spectrum of knowledge transfer and intellectual upliftment.
This has benefited the entire workforce. From German classes
to vegetable gardening, from hospitality service training
to HIV/Aids peer educational courses: all of them were available
to everyone and proved very effective.
Some of our employees learnt to make cheese on site; the head
of our Self-Sufficiency Centre (SSC) even made it across our
borders to receive in-depth-training in cheese-making in the
Netherlands. Various hospitality schools were quick to secure
practical training stints with us for as many of their students
as possible, and thus even more Namibians took part in our
in-house programme. |
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| Instructor Stephanie
Bischoff with successful participants in the German course. |
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| Apart from the specialised courses
offered by outside experts, the company also embarked on a
social responsibility programme which includes lectures and
presentations on subjects such as alcohol and drug abuse,
domestic violence, personal insurance and banking, family
planning and sexuality. Afterwards, open discussions with
professional psychologists take place and employees are encouraged
to approach the HR department for help with their personal
problems. After all, the company hopes for no more than employees
who are healthy in body and mind and therefore able to give
their best for productivity and customer satisfaction. |
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Let’s
take a look, for example, at the background of Nicodemus
Nyannyukweni Angula (35), one of Gondwana’s longstanding
employees. A member of the Ondonga people in the Oshikoto
Region in the far north, Nico moved to Keetmanshoop
and worked as a petrol pump attendant until Gondwana
hired him as a waiter in 1998. Over the years he made
good use of the company’s upliftment initiatives
and worked his way up to become Head of Guest Relations
at the Cañon Lodge.
Dutch Senior Expert Jan Versteegen trained Nico for
service and bar duties in 2003, and he attended each
of the German classes offered since 2001. Recently he
was chosen to participate in the two-week Tour Guide
Course conducted by the Namibian Academy for Tourism
and Hospitality (NATH) in
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From petrol pump attendant to Head of Guest Relations:
Nico Angula. |
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| Windhoek. An in-house geology workshop,
specially designed for Gondwana by geologist Nicole Grünert,
provided Nico with sufficient knowledge for offering sundowner
drives, canyon trips and hiking tours to our guests. All these
educational events are available to every employee free of
charge and they are eagerly made use of. |
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| In 2006, the fifth
year of the Education and Training Centre’s existence,
the focus will be on health and safety. Intensive training
on all staff levels will aim at increased awareness and the
prevention of HIV/Aids. Our partners in this venture are the
aids programme of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia
and the Namibia Network of Aids Service Organisations (NANASO)
as the implementing agency for AWISA (Aids Workplace Programme
in Southern Africa), which is funded by InWEnt (Capacity building
International) and the German Development Service (DED). |
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| First-aid
courses and fire safety workshops will be held and practical
safety measures will be implemented at each of the workstations.
Ultimately this will motivate more employees to identify
with themselves and their profession. With the support
of Gondwana’s directors and shareholders this
programme will continue at its steady pace and it has
already embedded itself in the minds of employees as
a part of their future. |
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Gondwana's HR Manager Sonia Noirfalise-Corsini with German lecturer Melanie Leonhardt. |
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Lecturers and teachers:
Dorotheé Brenner, Stephanie Bischoff, Martin
& Miriam Levine, Melanie Leonhardt and Manuel Epker,
Jan Versteegen and Albert Abbink. |
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