EOH Work Readiness Initiative - Narrative Reports 2014 - 2015 Aug. 2014 | Page 32
WORK READINESS INITIATIVE UNDER DIGITAL JOBS FOR AFRICA
What would you like to do in the future?
SHERMAUN LOUW
Shermaun grew up in Johannesburg and planned to
become a chef but was not able to study further and
signed up for the learnership with EOH. The work
readiness programme taught her to be circumspect about
sharing personal information with work colleagues which
has made her conduct at work more professional.
Full name
Shermaun Louw
South African Identity Number
9410190151086
Learning group
Technical Support G2
Gender
Female
Age
19
Occupation
IT Support Technician
Race
Coloured
Born
Boksburg
Siblings
Would you advise young people to go into IT as a
career?
“Yes because without IT there is no life here outside,
so you must have IT, and a lot of people don't know IT,
especially for the generation coming up, I prefer them to
learn more about IT.”
5
Parents
“I want to work in IT admin because I like to work with
paperwork, since I work in the storeroom I feel like that’s
for me, I can operate in the store room.”
Both parents currently working
“A lot of people [in my community] don’t know about IT
so they call me and I help them, but if I don’t know how
to help them I come back the next day and I ask my
previous mentor how to deal with that situation and then
I go back to that person and I help my neighbours and
stuff.”
Mother in cosmetics, father in
mining industry
Children
None
Highest grade at secondary
school
Grade 12
Post schooling qualifications
None
Currently studying
Learnership in IT Technical
Support
Employer
National Department of Public
Works
Background
“When I finished school in 2012 I wasn’t planning on
getting into IT, I was more interested in becoming a
chef. I applied at the university to study to be a chef and
waited for six months, but the opportunity came by [to do
the learnership] and I took it. IT is a nice experience to
know more about technology and it makes life easier.”
People “stab you in the back” at work and the
programme helped me deal with that
“There was a lot of stuff I didn’t know about myself [that I
learned from the programme]].”
And how did it affect your work at DPW?
“We have different types of people at [this] work. It built
us up, to make us stronger to face those people and deal
with them in a certain way. [For example] people stab
you behind your back, even though they [seem] friendly,
and now you know how to deal with it. [The programme
told us:] ‘Don’t differentiate from that person, but don’t tell
them stuff that is not supposed to be for them’. You don’t
share too much information about yourself, just be about
the workplace, no personal business