Last week, several Social Employment Fund participants of Awarenet were interviewed to share their experiences working in the SEF programme.
This part is about Thimna Tembela’s story and the impact the Social Employment Fund had on her life:
| When Thimna Tembela was still a learner at Mary Waters she attended tutoring sessions at Ikamva Youth Programme. After she successfully matriculated from Mary Waters High School Thimna was a tutor at the Ikamva Tutoring Programme. That’s also where she was introduced to the SEF programme for the first time. In addition to that she got the chance to be a tutor in various subjects such as maths, physical science and life science teaching at four different high schools throughout the Joza Township. Thimna still continued volunteering at Ikamva after her contract ended until Awarenet’s Lab Supervisor Thanduxolo Royi met her at Ikamva in October last year and told her that Awarenet needed tutors. Because she really enjoyed teaching at Ikamva, Thimna instantly applied for the job. Thimna used to tutor grade 11-12 until the OLICO maths program was introduced to her. The OLICO programme changed her perspective when it comes to teaching maths because she also got to work with up to 25 grade 7 learners. Teaching young learners maths also changed her attitude towards the teaching and the pedagogical aspect in itself. With the grade 7 learners she can form the classes in a more easy and relaxing way as opposed to the rather focused and serious atmosphere she tries to create in the lessons with the learners from grade 11-12. The exposure to larger groups made her fear of speaking in front of a big audience go away which also resulted in her being more confident in general. She stressed clearly that the SEF programme had a big impact on her life in general. It not only taught her about the importance of teamwork, education or punctuality, “joining the SEF programme is also certainly beneficial for my future path through the world of work”, she said. Furthermore she stated that due to the SEF programme she can assist her family financially and can “finally buy her mom things”.
Since she joined the SEF programme, Thimna has learned a lot about herself and has expanded her skillset. She realized that transferring knowledge to others is not as easy as it may seem and that in order to teach properly one must learn different ways of explaining and transmitting knowledge. Versatility is a skill she was able to master during her time at SEF which helped her a lot in communication with others as she now is aware that people are different and that just because she understands something doesn’t mean that others will understand it the same way. While being a SEF participant, Thimna is studying bachelor of arts online at UNISA and she wants to keep on studying and working in the future. She can also imagine tutoring as a side job at least but what exactly the future is going to bring is not yet decided by her. |