ADULT LITERACY GRADUATES HAPPY, PROUD

Well done Orley Foods! Perhaps this gesture will be a guiding light for other institutions around the country.

Education and life skills training is something that is vital to the growth of the country. Your HR team is only as strong as it's weakest link, so if you provide your staff with adequate training in literacy and numeracy competencies, not only are you empowering them, but your are strengthening your own assets.

Adult literacy graduates happy, proud

15 May 2007 at 11h00

Adult education hit the sweet spot at Cape Town-based food ingredient supplier Orley Foods when 26 participants in the class of 2007 graduated with literacy and numeracy competencies, as part of the company's adult education programme. Speaking at the graduation ceremony at the Cape Town plant, joint managing director Andrew Janik said: "You've done something on your own. We can supply tools and encouragement, but you've done it on your own."

Janik recognised HR manager Sylvia Hammond and her team for their commitment to creating the appropriate learning culture. According to Hammond, who has held senior HR positions in a number of manufacturing businesses, more than half of the Orley learners have been promoted and one learner was promoted twice within three months.

The programme is funded by Orley, but benefits from Food and Beverage Seta (Sector Education and Training Authority) grants which paid for the initial learner assessments and subsidised each learner. Natasha Louw, Orley's former HR officer returned to the company for the graduation ceremony. She praised management for facilitating the programme by making learning spaces available, having training on Saturdays and providing transport. Orley subsidised half the time spent on the programme with paid company time.

Reuben Daniels, a facilitator from company E-Degree who supplied the training expertise, said management assisted by providing time between shifts for the internal marketing of the programme. "Unless people are literate and numerate, we won't develop our human resource to its potential," said Hammond. "We continually see evidence of the benefits of the programme in the sense of pride and self-worth participants show."