Capacity Building Workshop II

As previously mentioned in my February blog, ‘Capacity Building Workshop I,’ the European Union (EU) has funded three, one week workshops for the members of the INSET Department within the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET). The second of these three workshops was held from May 31-June 4, 2010 at Foresters Arms in Mhlambanyatsi, Swaziland. Just like the first, it was also a ‘residential’ workshop and since the accommodations were about an hour north from Mbabane, all of the participants stayed at Foresters Arms for the full week. In February, the workshop was held in town near Manzini and many of the participants scooted home after dinner (including me!). Being ‘sequestered’ for this workshop enabled relationships to be strengthened and team building to be a natural, positive outcome from the week. In addition, the Teacher Resource Centre (TRC) Coordinators selected a new logo for INSET – courtesy of my brilliant, graphic designing sister, Nichole, and also created ‘marketing’ flyers for the programs and services offered by their respective TRCs. Other sessions included Teacher Supervision, Reinforcement, Motivating Teachers, Being Effective in Your Role, Literacy Strategies, Composition Writing and a variety of other topics that the Coordinators had expressed an interest in learning more about. These workshops are definitely one of the highlights of my consultancy role with the EU; the third and final workshop for this budget cycle will be in August. Stay tuned!

This is the Director of all of INSET, Maria. I work most closely with her to support her work and numerous projects.

Mrs. Bhembe and Mr. Magongo (front row) and Mrs. Khumalo and Mr. Zwane (back row) made use of the 'computer lab' that we set-up in the workshop room to design their TRC marketing flyers.

There were also many resources for producing teaching and learning materials compliments of the EU! I heart school supplies.

As previously mentioned, Nichole designed about 16 options for the new INSET logo; therefore there was a lot of analysis of the different logos and a lengthy discussion to bring 13 to consensus! Mr. Sihlonganyane, Mr. Mndzebele, Mr. Magongo and Mr. Dlamini discussed the logo options.

As did Mrs. Bhembe, Mrs. Khumalo and Mr. Mavuka

Perhaps the only downfall of the week was the weather. Winter arrived during the workshop and we wee bundled-up in the workshop room from 8:00-5:00pm. However, it was amazing the heat that this one fireplace could provide; we huddled around it during every break!