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Newsletter SKILLS INPUT 13 April 2011

In-service training placement a success

March is a busy month at SAOGA: finishing off the business planning process, getting ready for the annual audit, collating information for the reports we submit to funders and so on - the administrative stuff I'm sure we all grudgingly do in the process of keeping our organisations afloat to do the real work they are purposed to do.  Fortunately March also had a few significant events of consequence to the industry. 

SAOGA and UNIDO SPX

As we have announced last year, SAOGA have included the UNIDO SPX Competitive Supplier Development Programme into our service offerings to members. 

Opportunity for Members until 15 May 2011

I'd like to devote this letter to sharing the key strategic plans we have for SAOGA going forward.  Over the past few months we have taken a hard look at what we are doing and what we could be doing and have made some significant decisions about where we will spend our energy going forward.  Four principles underpin the choices we are making:

It's been a little too long since I last penned an entry for our newsletter and I offer my apologies for the missed issues. Aside from a badly-needed long summer break over the holidays the past few months have been very busy on account of a number of things which I shall touch on in this letter.

The past month or so has been the most interesting so far of my time at SAOGA. The reason? We’ve begun the company visits that are part of our industry profiling initiative and it has been absolutely fascinating to get out and see what you are all doing – there are some amazing businesses out there and I’ve been overwhelmed by the hospitality of companies and individuals who’ve made significant amounts of time available to give us a real insight into their businesses.

Like most of us in South Africa I have had a tremendous past month watching the excitement around the Soccer World Cup and really finding an excitement about the possibilities for this nation and our collective future that I haven’t really experienced since Nelson Mandela was released from prison and the anticipation-filled years which followed.  It truly was an outstanding event and we did ourselves proud with the way it was pulled off.