Press Release: Arming the future businesswomen
The Regional Businesswomen's Association (BWA) hosted 250 deserving matric girls from Durban and surrounding areas at its 12th annual Winning in the Workplace workshop held on Woman's Day, earlier this month.
Click here to view full article.
Businesswomen’s Association (BWA) corporate citizenship educational workshop 2010: Winning in the Workplace
August 9th 2010 ushered in the Businesswomen's Association's 12th annual "Winning in the Workplace" Workshop held at the UKZN's Graduate School of Business. The theme for the day was: "If you believe, you can achieve your dreams"
This project is the largest corporate citizenship project of the BWA in Durban and is sponsored in its entirety. The workshop provides the "businesswomen of tomorrow", with the necessary skills to make a success of their future entrance into the business world.
Approximately 250 female Grade 12 learners from randomly selected schools in KwaZulu-Natal arrived at 08h00 for this all day event. They were greeted with tea and sandwiches by a number of BWA committee members; who are all professional businesswomen; and give of their free time to support projects that provide "A platform for the inspiration and empowerment of women"
The learners are requested to write an essay, prior to attending the workshop, which gets marked during the course of the day by 7 impartial academics. This year's essay markers were:
- Catherine Eberle
- Thandi Zondo
- Sam Reddy
- Govin Reddy
- Stella Ngcobo
- Antoinette Dannewitz
- Maditshaba Mahlari
This year's topic: "AS YOUNG WOMEN IN 2010, YOU LOOK FORWARD TO EMBRACING A WHOLE NEW WORLD IN THE NEXT YEAR - A WORLD OF WORK, STUDY AND BUSINESS. YOU ARE BECOMING FREE AND POWERFUL CITIZENS IN A DEMOCRACY WHERE THE RIGHTS OF ALL ARE PROTECTED. WITH REFERENCE TO THE THE THREE EXTRACTS PROVIDED, WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE SPECIAL CHALLENGES FACING YOUNG WOMEN ABOUT TO ENTER THIS WORLD? HOW CAN THESE CHALLENGES BE OVERCOME OR AT LEAST ADDRESSED?
Click here to view the winning essay by Sapna Bigun of Greenbury Secondary
Once tea and registration were completed the learners were welcomed by the BWA Vice Chairperson, Farzanah Mall (Associate Director: KPMG) who had the following to say about the project:
“We as professional businesswomen recognise that many promising young ladies may never be afforded the opportunity to learn how to make informed career choices, manage their finances and be inspired by successful women. Through initiatives such as this we wish to increase private/public sector partnership and create a platform to educate and inspire school girls to reach their full potential and achieve success as they journey towards womanhood in our beautiful country. To watch the joy and excitement on the girl’s faces on Monday 9 August was priceless.”
The enthusiastic and energetic MC for the day, Margaret Kruger of Marisk Management Services, could not even be deterred by the fact that she had broken her leg just weeks before the event. She cleverly maintained a balance between the informative talks and fun exercises and tasks including singing of the national anthem, dancing to Queen's song "I want to break free"; running elections for the first female president of South Africa; singing songs by Lira and also the very popular "Durban's got talent" show.
The speakers for the day included:
- John Ballam - Personal Power
- Marianne Vorster - Managing my finances
- Zanele Ntombela - Landing that first Job (job market: application, CV, interviews)
- Vani Moodley - Effective Networking
- Lungie Xaba - Challenges facing school leavers
- Charlotte Kemp - Dealing with failure
- Neo Shabalala - Tips on how to succeed
- Diana Hoorzuk - HIV/AIDS Education
The learners were entertained by singer Autumn Eberle and the NCF dancers; whilst DJ's Martin & Pixie provided for the sound requirements as well as added to the "young vibe" of the event by playing age appropriate background music. Spot prizes from very generous sponsors of this event kept the learner's attention, increased interaction and added to the excitement of the day.
Whilst the learners were treated to a very scrumptious lunch the committee madly rushed around to quietly place the "memory bags" filled with loads of sponsored products; valued at R 1 000; under each learners seat. These bags contained items which included personal care items, food products, consumer goods, t-shirts, stationary, books, juice and cosmetics. The screams of joy, elation and excitement when the learners returned were reward enough for the weary committee members who had tirelessly organised the event, sought the sponsorships and packed the bags the afternoon before.
The committee members were:
- Farzanah Mall (Project chair)
- Devanna Mahlangu
- Zanele Ntombela
- Julie Cloete
- Sarah Rawat
- Catherine Smith
- Cheri Labuschagne
- Margaret Kruger
- Pria Hassan
The judges, represented by Catherine Eberle, commented on the essays overall and then called on Farzanah Mall to hand out the prizes to the top 10. The top 10 each received prizes to the value of R 5 000 which included a laptop. These talented, hard working ladies were:
01 Sapna Bigun – Greenbury Secondary
02 Sabihah Silamuddin – Al-Falaah College
03 Kathleen Hohls – Westville Girls High School
04 Londeka Ngcobo – Albini Girls High School;
05 Elisha Marie – Avonford Secondary
06 Telvina Naidoo – Greenbury Secondary
07 Zanele Mqadi – Velabahleke High School
08 Sumeya Gasa – Al Falaah College
09 Safeeya Ramraj – Glenhaven Secondary
10 Senamile Gabuza – Inanda Seminary
The event was closed off by Ann Druce the chairperson of the BWA who congratulated the organisers for a very successful event overall and formally thanked everyone including the sponsors for the part they played in making the learners day "a day of dreams".
A very special thank you to our key sponsors:
- Women of Africa Fuels and Oils
- KPMG
- Tongaat Hulett Limited
- Thabile Engineering
- Foodbank Durban
- Unilever
- Sara Lee
- Nedbank
Special recognition also goes to our other sponsors who made the event possible:
- Anne Dreyer
- Argon Asset Management
- Associated Magazines
- Aunde Sa
- Beiersdorf
- BellaBody
- Brush Strokes
- Chaya Lakhani
- Coo-ee
- Diana Hoorzuk
- Gembox
- HotStuff Marketing
- Islamic Guidance
- Kingsgate Clothing
- Marisk Management Services
- Mum's Mail
- First Tech cc (Pieter Du Plessis)
- Pioneer Foods
- P. Reddy
- PricewaterhouseCoopers
- Ridewaan Sayed Attorneys
- Sara Lee
- Spur - Kloof
- Suresh Lakhan
- Thabile Engineering
- The Bedroom
- Tongaat Hulett
- UKZN
- U.S Consulate
- Varsity College
- Waltons
- Women Essentials
Overall this year's event was a huge success with over R 400 000 worth of sponsorship being raised for the event. Winning in the Workplace has proven itself a recipe for success and with the increased generosity of our sponsors we have grown in the number of attendees for this workshop, and have been able to extend our reach to areas beyond the greater Durban Area. It is the hope of all involved that this event will continue to grow from strength to strength and touch the lives of many more promising young ladies encouraging them to reach for their dreams and achieve the highest success possible. Perhaps the first female president of South Africa will be one of them!
We are also excited to receive the following feedback from Jabu Bhengu, Department of Education:
“On behalf of the 300 girls that attended Monday’s event I thank you, the organizing committee and Business Women’s Association for such a fun but informative function.
Your selection of topics and speakers was diverse but all inspiring and got the messages that the girls really need in their lives. I am sure they will share with their school mates lessons from the function. Your programme director was good and energetic and energizing all day long.
Thanks again there is a lot to learn from your organizing and fund raising skills, will definitely take advantage of that going forward.”
Message from one of the top 10 finalists who attended the workshop:
TO: everyone involved in organising the "Winning in the Workplace Workshop".
Thank you so much for all of your hard work and incredible effort. The workshop was so well organised, presented and obviously planned with young people in mind. You are all very inspiring women.
Thank you for helping so many, including me, to understand the true meaning behind women's day and being a women. Not only did I gain invaluable wisdom, and wonderful prizes but I learnt about myself and how very capable I am to live a highly successful life. You have invested in my future by your encouragement, and for that I am truly grateful.
I hope you are able to continue this wonderful initiative in the future years to come. Keep up the good work!