April 2011 - Oceana Group

12
A COMMITMENT TO DEVELOPING LEADERS
(L to R) Heilet Bertand, Programme Director at USB; Jan Hansby, Gadija Bowman, Jenine Thomas and Razeen Solomon – received award for the Best Syndicate Group; and OGL HR
Manager, Jane WIlkinson
EMDP graduates who obtained their certificates in March. They completed three study blocks since October last year, which included,
among others, an introduction to managerial roles and financial management; operations and project management; conflict
management; personal mastery; coaching for performance; and communication and presentation skills training.
Oceana Group’s employees can feel proud of its
reputation as not only the largest and only listed
fishing company in South Africa, but also one of
the leading companies in terms of performance,
empowerment and sustainability.
The question that must be asked, though, is how does the company
plan to ensure that it retains this position amid increasing
challenges in its operating environment? One way in which it is
doing so is by adopting a leadership framework, which includes
ensuring that its people are equipped with the necessary competencies
– skill sets – to deliver against the leadership agenda.
Oceana Group Training Manager, Natalie Groepes, says the
company is committed to training and development that will
empower employees to meet the expectations of a high performance
leadership culture. This consists of various learnerships and
training programmes.
Learnerships:
More than 30 people within the Group are registered on learnerships
so far this year. These are formal qualifications that are conducted
by an external provider, namely, the Production Management
Institute (PMI) and typically run over a year. The learnerships
consist of generic qualifications for employees who need operational
competencies. Natalie says that 12 people are attending a
Generic Management programme registered on a National Quali-
fications Framework (NQF) 3 level. More than 20 others from
Commercial Cold Storage are participating in the NQF2 Wholesale
and Retail Distribution learnership. Students attend class for a full
day once per week for three weeks in the month over 11 months at
the PMI’s offices in Bellville. Formal assessments take place at the end
of each cluster contributing to the individual’s portfolio of evidence,
which serves demonstrate competence in the various learning areas.
At the time of drafting this article, NQF2 and NQF4 level Business
Administration learnerships were being considered for clerical staff.
Employees who wish to apply for these learnerships should speak
to their HR representative and be prepared to complete English
literacy and numeracy assessments to qualify for the course.
Training Programmes:
The company, together with the University of Stellenbosch
Business School (USB), has designed two customised programmes
to develop its pool of current and future managers, namely:
• LMDP – Leadership Management Development Programme
• EMDP – Emerging Management Development Programme
Two additional programmes are being earmarked to further support
the Group’s leadership philosophy – coaching for executives and
senior managers, as well as project management.
A few employees also attended a Senior Management and
Executive Development Programme (SMDP and EDP) at the USB,
which were organised by the Food and Beverages Sector Education
and Training Authority (SETA).
ABOVE LEFT: (Top L to R) Shane Welby-Solomon , Geyrieya Hendricks, Jomarie Willemse, Feroza Mowzer, Razeen Solomon; (Bottom L to R) Victor Richards, Jenine Thomas,
Enid Boys, Gadija Bowman, Kristan Solomon, Jan Hansby and Theresa Sam
ABOVE RIGHT: (L to R) Heilet Bertrand, Programme Director at USB; Enid Boys – received Director’s award for best individual assignment; and OGL HR Manager, Jane WIlkinson