Chantelle Engelbrecht (standing), newly appointed FCD Volunteer and Partner Coordinator, acoompanied our Office Basics learners on a site visit to Vodacom.
The partnerships for funding, placements and job shadows remain key in order to fulfill our vision.
We continue to focus increasing time, resource and effort on growing these partnerships. Our ability to link our students to employment opportunities remains a fundamental cornerstore of our mission and we will continue to invest resource and focus behind this deliverable.
The number of individual private donors grew from 26 to 46 during the 2016/17 year. The number of business and foundation donors partnering with us doubled from 7 to 15 in the same period, while the number of job shadow and placement partners increased to 53.
We remain grateful for their ongoing support and partnership and we are excited about future growth in this area.
Part of this future growth included welcoming new staff member, Chantelle Engelbrecht, onto our team as Volunteer and Partner Coordinator. Her focus will be to strengthen our network of partnerships.
Chantelle says, “I have always had a passion for South Africa and its people. After matriculating in Hamburg, Germany, I decided to return to South Africa to study with a desire to make a meaningful contribution to our wonderful country. Through career and personal changes, the constants in my life have been my faith, my interest in people and community development. My three year experience as a creche volunteer in Khayamandi while obtaining my Masters degree, taught me how to engage and interact with various cultural groups.”
Chantelle also has experience in the political arena. She says, “My experience at Parliament taught me how to work under severe pressure and more importantly, gave me some insight into the intricate workings of politics in South Africa”.
During the past term, we were happy to include Pep Stores as one of our partners and recently sent a group of Job Readiness learners to receive their work-experience training (job shadows) at several Pep Stores.
We’ve also connected with Durbell Pharmacy and look forward to the opportunities that this relationship will offer our learners.