Welcome to the University of Cape Town News
Wamkelekile, Welkom
Wamkelekile, Welkom
GSB teaches graduands to AIM high
10 July 2002
WHEN SPEAKING to Carol Adams and Ruschda Johaadien, who graduate this week from the Graduate School of Business (GSB) 2001 part-time Associate in Management (AIM) programme, it becomes clear that the year they spent at the Waterfront campus has been a watershed experience for both.
President and Vice-President, respectively, of the AIM class for the second semester of last year, Adams and Johaadien have achieved things neither would have thought possible until recently. Both talk of the AIM programme "opening a new world of opportunity".
Adams is an occupational therapist by training who "escaped" employment in a clothing factory by registering for and finishing her degree - cum laude - at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) despite a number of financial hiccups. After working as a community therapist for UWC for a few years, she moved to Southern Life (currently Momentum) where she progressed from claims consultant into the company's actuarial department.
Feeling that she needed some formal business training, she registered at the GSB last year, but with a certain amount of diffidence. "Going there with a community, social service ethic, I didn't feel that I belonged in the hard business world," she says.
The quiet one in the class initially, Adams soon found her voice and discovered a burgeoning sense of confidence. "AIM doesn't just give you the academic framework and the business skills, but it also helps you grow as a person," she notes.
While she had not intended to leave Momentum when enrolling for AIM, prospects at the company became limited and she realised – thanks to her new-found confidence – that it was time to move on. "It was very clear in my mind that I had outgrown my job, and I had to do something which was more challenging."
Two days after finding out she was pregnant (with twin boys), she negotiated "a very nice package" with the fledgling Medscheme Life, who had called her with a job offer. This package included Medscheme reimbursing her for AIM tuition costs.
If not for AIM, Adams says she may have become frustrated in her professional life. "AIM provided me with the opportunity to realise that I am capable of doing much more than I thought. I think eventually I may have reached this point in my life, but I feel I would have taken a lot of detours and it would have taken a bit longer to get here."
Johaadien agrees that AIM also gave her the courage to venture into previously unexplored regions of possibility. A BA graduate – also from UWC – she was working for managed healthcare company, QUALSA Healthcare, when she decided that she needed a generic business qualification.
Thinking initially that the course would simply provide her with the necessary business skills, she realised after the first term that AIM had much more to offer. "It opened my mind to so many different things, to so many different ways of looking at things," she recollects.
While she, like Adams, had no intention of leaving her then-employer, a number of job offers came her way courtesy of the GSB's Careers Service. An eleventh hour decision to attend a presentation by Private Wealth Management (PWM), a subsidiary of Old Mutual, changed the course of her life.
"I remember sitting in the car and thinking to myself, should I rather go shopping at the Waterfront? What do I know about finance, I thought? I literally had my foot out of the car door when I said, 'Ruschda, this one second can change your life'. And it actually did. As I sat in the presentation and listened to the speaker, I thought, hey, I can do this.
"The whole course has given me a lot of confidence in my abilities. Even going into AIM, I didn't think I was going to cope, but the course has shown me there's a lot more to me than I thought."
Currently on a three-month intensive training programme in financial planning at PWM, Johaadien says the AIM course has also given her the courage to take on some very difficult professional pursuits. She has recently registered on a programme to become a certified financial planner, the highest qualification in this field.
"I would never have thought of tackling that now if didn't do AIM last year. It's just opened up this whole new world to me."
The long hours at the GSB have paid off, she adds. "My family didn't see me a lot, but they knew what I wanted to achieve and why."
President and Vice-President, respectively, of the AIM class for the second semester of last year, Adams and Johaadien have achieved things neither would have thought possible until recently. Both talk of the AIM programme "opening a new world of opportunity".
Adams is an occupational therapist by training who "escaped" employment in a clothing factory by registering for and finishing her degree - cum laude - at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) despite a number of financial hiccups. After working as a community therapist for UWC for a few years, she moved to Southern Life (currently Momentum) where she progressed from claims consultant into the company's actuarial department.
Feeling that she needed some formal business training, she registered at the GSB last year, but with a certain amount of diffidence. "Going there with a community, social service ethic, I didn't feel that I belonged in the hard business world," she says.
The quiet one in the class initially, Adams soon found her voice and discovered a burgeoning sense of confidence. "AIM doesn't just give you the academic framework and the business skills, but it also helps you grow as a person," she notes.
While she had not intended to leave Momentum when enrolling for AIM, prospects at the company became limited and she realised – thanks to her new-found confidence – that it was time to move on. "It was very clear in my mind that I had outgrown my job, and I had to do something which was more challenging."
Two days after finding out she was pregnant (with twin boys), she negotiated "a very nice package" with the fledgling Medscheme Life, who had called her with a job offer. This package included Medscheme reimbursing her for AIM tuition costs.
If not for AIM, Adams says she may have become frustrated in her professional life. "AIM provided me with the opportunity to realise that I am capable of doing much more than I thought. I think eventually I may have reached this point in my life, but I feel I would have taken a lot of detours and it would have taken a bit longer to get here."
Johaadien agrees that AIM also gave her the courage to venture into previously unexplored regions of possibility. A BA graduate – also from UWC – she was working for managed healthcare company, QUALSA Healthcare, when she decided that she needed a generic business qualification.
Thinking initially that the course would simply provide her with the necessary business skills, she realised after the first term that AIM had much more to offer. "It opened my mind to so many different things, to so many different ways of looking at things," she recollects.
While she, like Adams, had no intention of leaving her then-employer, a number of job offers came her way courtesy of the GSB's Careers Service. An eleventh hour decision to attend a presentation by Private Wealth Management (PWM), a subsidiary of Old Mutual, changed the course of her life.
"I remember sitting in the car and thinking to myself, should I rather go shopping at the Waterfront? What do I know about finance, I thought? I literally had my foot out of the car door when I said, 'Ruschda, this one second can change your life'. And it actually did. As I sat in the presentation and listened to the speaker, I thought, hey, I can do this.
"The whole course has given me a lot of confidence in my abilities. Even going into AIM, I didn't think I was going to cope, but the course has shown me there's a lot more to me than I thought."
Currently on a three-month intensive training programme in financial planning at PWM, Johaadien says the AIM course has also given her the courage to take on some very difficult professional pursuits. She has recently registered on a programme to become a certified financial planner, the highest qualification in this field.
"I would never have thought of tackling that now if didn't do AIM last year. It's just opened up this whole new world to me."
The long hours at the GSB have paid off, she adds. "My family didn't see me a lot, but they knew what I wanted to achieve and why."
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Please view the republishing articles page for more information.
Centre for Higher Education Development
In the news
Faculty highlights
30 Oct 2023
Newsroom and Video Production
28 Feb 2023
.jpg)
Update on available support services
26 Mar 2020
Congratulations to ad hom promotion recipients
09 May 2017
Farewell from DVC Prof Francis Petersen
15 Mar 2017
Curriculum Change Working Group
17 Aug 2016
Professionalisation the tonic for municipalities' dysfunction
Violent service protests across the country reflect the disjuncture between the needs of civil society's poorest and local government's roll-out of resources and services. It's a topic close to Phindile Ntliziywana's heart. One of UCT's five New Generation of Academics Programme (nGAP) participants, Ntliziywana's PhD examines how the public service, specifically local government, can be improved.
17 May 2016
Sadiq Toffa, the nGAP scholar with a commitment to transformative knowledge
The New Generation of Academics Programme (nGAP) is an initiative funded by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) in partnership with individual universities that recruits young scholars into permanent academic positions at South African universities.
03 May 2016
Ad hominem academic promotions
12 Apr 2016
New online course in postgrad research writing
06 Apr 2016
Transforming UCT
23 Mar 2016
Teaching in the digital age
27 Jul 2015
Transformation: Vibrant student spaces needed
13 Apr 2015
A word from the dean
01 Dec 2014
Commerce EDU 'like family'
22 Sep 2014
EDU is where dreams are made true
04 Sep 2013
Tsotsitaal on the table
22 Jul 2013
News in pictures
11 Feb 2013
IsiXhosa course graduates honoured
17 Jan 2013
IsiXhosa course a useful tool, say students
05 Nov 2012
Hard work pays off for champion teacher
14 Aug 2012
Hard work pays off for champion teacher
08 Jan 2012
Innovative teacher wins Stella Clark Award
22 Aug 2011
UCT wins multilingualism awards
04 Apr 2011
isiXhosa course in demand
15 Dec 2010
Xhosa course in demand
03 Dec 2010
Teacher's dedication takes her to the stars
05 Aug 2010
Pithy pointers for PhDs
26 Apr 2010
PhDs get pointers
23 Apr 2010
Xhosa course growing bigger
04 Dec 2009
Role model wins Stella Clark award
24 Aug 2009
Role model wins Stella Clark award
20 Aug 2009
Appointments
11 May 2009
Milestones
23 Jun 2008
Thetha msebenzi thetha
30 Nov 2007
Notes from Council
29 Oct 2007
Speaking many languages
07 May 2007
R1.3 million boost for multilingualism
20 Apr 2007
Notes
11 Dec 2006
Once, twice, thrice capped
11 Dec 2006
CPUT carries the day
12 Jun 2006
A lifeline to learners
24 May 2006
Masithethe isiXhosa, zihlobo zam!
23 Mar 2006
Changing the mainstream
13 Mar 2006
Stop press
04 Jan 2006
Multilingualism revisited
17 Oct 2005
Campus highlights
03 Oct 2005
Tribute to Stella Clark
04 Apr 2005
Oldest brand of denims helps student numeracy
27 May 2003
Party of five for Harvard
07 Apr 2003
Diary: 9 December 2002 onwards
09 Dec 2002
GSB teaches graduands to AIM high
10 Jul 2002