Our #followfriday #friday feature #meetourstaff staff champion is a powerhouse, a woman on grace and strength, a believer of hard work and faith, a lover of traveling. She is a leader, a problem solver, a community builder and a direct and outspoken person, she is Mathapelo Sehume. Mathapelo officially started working for SchoolNet SA back in 2010 however her initial encounter with SchoolNet was in 2009 when she was an intern for an employability program called NFP ( New Futures Programme), this was a program funded by AED who partnered with Microsoft SA; Scibono discovery center and implemented by SchoolNet SA. She started working at SchoolNet half days on the Vodacom foundation project in 2009 and that led to working full time in 2010 to date. She has been with SchoolNet for 11 years 🙂
Mathapelo is responsible for overseeing training and office operations at SchoolNet.
When asked what she likes most about working for SchoolNet, she said:
‘’Working for SchoolNet is working with family, the opportunity to learn from different partners/organizations and learn best work practices, to teach skills to partners especially when working on big projects and the endless growth opportunities that present themselves in forms of skills development workshops organized internally and organic growth that comes with being around teachers, learners, and partners/sponsors.’’
When we asked her to point out her favourite SchoolNet project, she said:
‘’This is a difficult one…My favorite project currently is the Telkom project – this project has stretched me and how I see projects.
At the heart of this project is a yearning to see previously disadvantaged learners receiving the best learning opportunities by granting access to technology, teaching, and learning resources whilst their social needs are also addressed.
The team working on this project has invested more than finances or just technology, they spend endless hours investing their time on strategizing, implementing and evaluating without fear to change strategy to accommodate the main beneficiaries ( the learners). The project team spends time listening to and engaging learners and makes means to accommodate their requests.
The Vodacom project was also a fantastic project, the model of this project was a self-sustaining one and SchoolNet’s responsibility was to build capacity in all the Vodacom resource centers. Teachers who stayed around these centers had the opportunity to learn ICT skills at their own pace, these teachers also had the resource center manager who would be there to mentor teachers and assist with ideas on how they could incorporate the usage of ICTs for teaching and learning.
The Sun International project was also a great project 🙂 for the first time teachers who teach hospitality studies were granted the opportunity to teach using technology. Sun international created an e-learning platform and populated it with digital media that would be used for teaching and learning.
Schools that did not have all kitchen equipment for practical lessons were now able to watch videos and complete their studies.
Every project is an opportunity to learn and grow and I guess it is difficult to speak about one project when all are equally fulfilling and grant us the opportunity to use technology ( in its various forms) more effectively for teaching and learning.’’
So, What does she want to achieve this year?
‘’I want to sharpen my presentation skills 🙂 then find ways in which SchoolNet can source funding for another internship /employability program for out of school youth.’’
So, why not follow her, she is Mathape Sehume on Facebook, @thipemathapeo on Instagram
