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Alumni Talk: Meet Dr Felleng Yende, who is at the helm of the Fibre Processing & Manufacturing Sector Education and Training Authority (FP&MSETA), and our remarkable alumnus (Image supplied) Dr Yende is on the rise – her patience, perseverance, resilience and humility give her the momentum to move forward. In addition, she also attributes her remarkable strides largely to the helpful liveliness of those she is closely associated with. That is, family and her supervisors, as well as The Da Vinci Institute’s team, for always being there throughout her research journey when needed. Dr Yende’s academic curiosity and journey undertook a critical reflective work-based challenge, as articulated in her thesis, after having realised that the nexus of leadership and the 4th Industrial Revolution have been under-researched within the context of organisational adaptability – thus her thesis titled: “Enhancing public sector leadership in the age of the 4th Industrial Revolution…
ALUMNUS ALERT: Henriette van Twisk, Da Vinci Institute’s Master’s Degree Alumnus (2021) (Image supplied) Henriette, through dedication and commitment has uniquely placed herself as an expert aspiring to make a long-lasting contribution to the field of education, a crucial area towards sustainability. Now armed with a master’s degree from The Da Vinci Institute, and even prior to her having obtained the mentioned qualification, Henriette has been confronting some of the burning issues in recent times – conundrums within the education sector and specifically at the college level. Her dissertation, a diagnostic study, is titled: Summative Evaluation of a Foundational Learning Programme for Technical and Vocational Colleges in South Africa. Henriette states that its chief aim “is to answer the question: Can a foundational learning programme create a learning foundation that will facilitate better pass rates when students enrol at TVET colleges?” A corollary to this question is, “to design,…
Marcus Tebogo Desando: The Man and His Work We are joined today by The Da Vinci Institute’s Masters alumnus and Doctoral candidate, Marcus Tebogo Desando – the outgoing CEO of Arts & Culture Trust. Now, newly appointed as the Director of Prince Claus Fund (Amsterdam). He is a constant fixture of South Africa’s cultural and operatic scene. (Image supplied) In briefly tracing back the origins of Marcus’ artistic journey, he began as a chorister, thus an operatic singing career inevitably ensued, usually a path not abnormal among choral singers, especially here in South Africa. As the years passed, Marcus started to consider charting a career path in operatic stage directing, following advice from his mentor Prof. Angelo Gobbato, to which he moved apace and, over-time, an artistic occupation he became renowned for in the country. He was first an assistant to local and visiting international directors, where he…
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Dr Heather Goode provides some insights into Da Vinci alumnus Ross Sauders’ book, titled: This is not what I signed up for: A survival guide for first-time managers Of course, no company intends to promote someone incompetent or to promote someone until they are incompetent in their new position (the Peter Principlei), nor is it any managers intention to promote someone likely to fail. At least not usually, and if it does happen, there’s a story to tell. The sad truth is, that being an accountant doesn’t actually prepare you to manage accountants. That being a good programmer doesn’t prepare you to manage programmers, projects or diverse multi-skilled teams. Similarly, no one works for promotion in order to fail in their new role. And yet, research conducted by CEB shows that 60 per cent of new managers fail within the first 24 months of their new position. In today’s increasingly dynamic…
His measured personality exudes a serene quality about him, touched with a deep humbleness – this is how we describe our experience of Avesh Sundarlal’s character during his research period at the Home of Remarkability. Beneath the quiet demeanour in him is an unquenchable obsession for research, and his analyses are of a careful and even painstaking nature. These, perhaps, may be the sorts of qualities that could be associated with a mind that is constantly engaged in abstract matters of an academic kind and, by his own admission: “I love to learn … [and I am constantly] listening in to new ideas and simultaneously augmenting my own.” According to Mr Sundarlal, a day in his life without any learning engagement or new experiments is an opportunity wasted. The love for learning and the intellectual wherewithal that Mr Sundarlal possesses is something made evident in his research project titled: “A…
Researching for, but not limited to, a Doctoral Degree, and timeously having it completed, is the culmination of years of toil and is no easy feat. The trepidation that comes with it, nonetheless, may also be the much-needed occasional reminder and motivation for the researcher to keep on track with the researching momentum, as the journey evolves and ideas flow over time. This is the process that one of our newest Doctoral graduates, Dr Yusuf Adeojo underwent, and was rewarded at our recent 2021 graduation ceremony when he was conferred with his Doctoral degree from The Da Vinci Institute. The path to the attainment of his apex qualification may have not been a walk-in-the-park, but Dr Adeojo marched on and saw the journey leading through to its ultimate maturity and fruition. Dr Adeojo likens his PhD journey to the DNA sequencing process that fellow researchers and scientists often use when…
