Hello and welcome to a space where celebrating excellence is the order of the day, and in other words - we’re simply celebrating you. :)
Needless to say, good people, is that it has been a year. Power cuts, loadshedding and some failing infrastructure have left things feeling somewhat glum at times, and that’s fair enough. What we cling to and find meaning in, however, is the wonder that fills up this space, against all odds.
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Wherever you are right now, can you take a moment to breathe? A moment to take in the power that circles through this space, sometimes noticed, sometimes not? The cosmos are talking and SO ARE WE. Read on for the latest and the greatest of this Umuzi Community.
Welcoming new cohorts is our favourite thing at Umuzi! We get a chance to meet new faces, share stories and usher learners into exciting journeys which we hope will lead them to high value careers in the digital world! Meet the new kids on the block:
Hello C37 :)
Hello C38 :)
Hello C39 :)
From Work Experience to EMPLOYMENT ekse!
All we’re saying is that this community is out here doing the proverbial things, and it shows! Imagine defying the odds and choosing the alternative path, believing in an organisation that believes in you, soaking up the content and landing yourself slap bang in the middle of a high-value employment opportunity in the field you chose. IMAGINE!
An Inglorious Umuzi Shoutout to these legends for securing the bag, and being retained by one of our partners after their 3 months of work experience.
NEW JOURNEY ALERT: On-The-Job-Training
These incredible humans are beginning an exciting new stage of their journey in July, where they’ll be gaining 3 months of invaluable work experience with three of our partners, Lerato Agency, PurpleCosmos and TooMuchWifi. They’ve spent the past 9 months honing their craft and now it’s time to shift gears and put their lessons learnt to use!
These learners have been in the Umuzi space on a two year course, joining an advanced upskilling programme after their initial learnership. Their next step is 4 powerful months at BBD Software as Web Development interns 🧨
Offerings for learners
The learning never ends! We’ve introduced a new offering to the community following a programme in the form of an Employability Sprint, which aims to give you tips and tricks to optimise your career and online profile, making you more employable.
UMUZI CLUBS
Back in the day, the Club space was alive with learners, alumni and team members connecting weekly - learning new languages, new hobbies and more. Here’s Cohort 11’s Jojo Johan Kanye flaunting his newly learnt French Skillz back in 2018.
There are so many different ways to connect in this space, and although the digital realm makes it a little more challenging, the value of outside-of-work engagement is unparalleled! We have a few clubs set up that are under construction and looking for new meaning in quarter 3 of this year.
Wellness
As the world gets more and more fast paced, and our demands on both ourselves and what we want grows; a healthy look at one's well being is vitally important. The Umuzi Wellness space is growing and thriving and is here for our people, in every aspect of the word.
we have the following upcoming wellness-based workshops coming up in july
Holistic Wellbeing
Personal Growth
*All dates TBC
Umuzi Team
2023 has been a rad year for the team, and we’re getting better at our in-person meetups that happen every 6 weeks or so. In January we had our first ever UWEEK, a dedicated conference week where the team comes together to work and not work, making nca over hot + cold beverages ;), aligning on our collective mission, occasionally engaging in uvosho on dancefloors and strategizing for the year ahead. Ask asanda.radebe@umuzi.org for details, we swear. ALSO, a lot of the time we get to meet each other for the first time! There’s only so much you can get to know about a person, during your weekly from-the-waist-up online meetings.
SPOTTED: Your favourite scrum master doing mom tings! Holla Ms Nancy.
A BLAST FROM THE PAST
These days, our in-person office days in Jeppestown are beyond us. But for a long time we pined for those days, where the air was thick but the kotas were too. We spent lunch breaks discussing concepts in the kitchen, ping-pong tournaments happening mid very-important-Wednesday-morning-stand-ups (you know the vibes mos)... but we think it’s time we closed that chapter.
Maybe it’s time to move from /nostalgia into /becoming. From /dwelling on what we /lost, to an emphasis on potential that lies before us, our ability to reach inspiring young people all over the goddamn continent and moreover further capitalise on this digital space we find ourselves in.
Doesn’t taste so bad huh?
So for one last nostalgic glimpse, welcome to the metaverse: This is, was and forever will be, our community:
Remote work be like…
PLUG YOUR PASSION
As you may well know, this community is made up of the energies of each person who passes through our Umuzi programmes. On the other side of being badass developers, designers, analysts and engineers, we all have a little something-something to bring to the table. Side hustle nyana. That lockdown hobby that turned into a whole thing! We got to talking to two humans about their passions.
We got to talking to Hishaam Pharo, an Alumnus, about his unexpected passion for Taro card readings. We didn’t know much about it before, but if this has ever tickled your fancy - dive into a more in depth understanding from Hishaam here.
Nqabakazi, another rad Umuzi Alumnus of the UCT Digital Bootcamp, plugged her passion by sharing this kwik-n-eazy piece of deliciousness. If that good good omega-3 is a vibe for you, get involved with the full recipe here.
Spotted: Thami taking the WIN in a morning stand up
Conclusions
Thank you for coming to this digital celebration of our phenomenal community. We are forever grateful for the wonder that makes its way into this space.
That wonder is you.