The APLI Foundation Programme provides tailored-made training to high school Learners
Representative Council members (LRC) and Junior town councillors.
The foundation programme equips learners with comprehensive leadership training, fundamental to their current leadership positions and beyond. This will enable them to serve their peers effectively and prepare them to lead on larger platforms in the future. The principle applied here is thus to identify and groom leaders from an early age, to be effective leaders within their school context.
On Saturday, 29 February 2020 the African Pathfinder Leaders Initiative (APLI) Foundation Programme hosted a training workshop with 28 high school learners from Ndjuluwa97 and Physically Active Youth (P.A.Y.) Namibia. The training took place in Windhoek at P.A.Y. with participants ranged from 13 -17 years old.
After a drizzle earlier that morning, the learners arrived ready and eager to learn and engage. The programme kicked off on a light and very humorous note with a team-building icebreaker and an introductory session. A selection of sessions are highlighted below:
The first session started with an exciting and engaging session on public speaking, allowing the students to warm up and become conscious of habits and tricks when communicating.
The second session saw the learners taking a test to identify their leadership style. This session explained to learners what leadership is and taught the learners to recognize various leadership styles when interacting with others, in groups and teams. This is in addition to knowing their leadership style and strengths and how to capitalize on that.
The session on ethics, diversity and conflict management explored how learners approach issues relating to conflicts. This was a practical session with participants examining the different thought processes. It was an enlightening session in terms of looking at the dynamics on how learners reason on issues which affect them. The learners had the opportunity to hear the opinions and perspectives of their peers on issues which do not generally form part of regular conversations.
Of note is that two APLI alumni and interns Beatha Iileka and Lamek Ndjaba from the 2019 Fellowship also presented sessions as part of skills transfer in the APLI internship programme. Indeed the day was jam-packed, but the response from the participants was overwhelmingly positive and they said that the training was very valuable for them. The APLI team also received feedback from one of the parents who said that their child learned a lot about saving from the financial literacy session and would like to open a bank account. The day ended with a late lunch and certificate handover to all participants. The learners were also presented with numerous online tools and websites they can use for additional study materials and research purposes.
The training was made possible by the generous sponsorship from the U.S. Embassy in Namibia and Coca-Cola Namibia Bottling Company. If your high school or junior council is interested in this training, contact our director of programmes, Hilja Eelu at hilja@apli-nam.org