For us at TLC, the best celebrations are those where we acknowledge and recognise the hard-earned achievements of the people we train and develop. Monday 17th September was a truly special day, as we had the opportunity to celebrate with a group of learners from Fairfield Dairy, who had shown perseverance and commitment to their year-long learnership programme.

The learnership, an NQF1 qualification on Food and Beverage Handling processes, covers modules on Personal and Product Safety, Food Handling, and Life Skills. The learners selected were previously unemployed, and this gave them an opportunity to add a SAQA qualification to their skill-set, making them more employable. Classes were held on Saturdays throughout the year in Fairfield’s well-equipped training venue at their Howick site.

To commit to studying for a full year, while working full time on shift, is a significant challenge. TLC’s expert learnership facilitator and assessor, Todd Clark said, “It is really special to be able to celebrate with these learners today. They have shown great persistence and determination, and have worked hard to complete the programme. For many of them, it’s been tough at times and they’ve had to dig deep. But they’ve achieved it!”

For Ivo Buratovich, MD of Fairfield Dairy, development of people is very close to his heart. As he reminds his team, “They can steal everything, but they cannot steal your education!”. His commitment to the learners was to guarantee permanent employment for every single learner who completed the programme, a fantastic incentive. Further, Fairfield plans to embark on the learnership again with a new group of eager learners – yet another reason to celebrate!