A year after the delivery of our first training course and the programmes are still going strongly. We now present four courses, namely:

• Soil Erosion Control and Management
• Supervisor/Junior Management
• Invasive & Alien Plants – Clearing and Control
• Entrepreneurship

Not only do the learners cover our course material the enriched programme has the added benefit of teaching other skills, like:

• Communication skills
• Teamwork
• Leadership skills
• Presentation skills
• Interpretation and evaluation of financial data for the use in personal finance.
• Personal development – especially self-esteem and self-confidence.

Skills obtained from a training course could be implemented in other GCBR projects, e.g. The erosion control methods learned were implemented during the Spekboom Jobs4Carbon project at Mount Rouge. Opportunities like these must be investigated for other GCBR projects.

Not all learners were self-motivated to attend the courses, but were there because their employers signed them up. By identifying these individuals and giving special attention to them, they changed their attitude and at the end of the course were positive and contributed significantly to the training process.

The first year was challenging but at the same time very rewarding. With the VDI’s own training facility close to completion, and the lessons learned, there is a bright future ahead.

Our success and achievement culminated in the Certificate Award Ceremony which took place in December 2018.