Trip to Durban for a meeting #ibmcsc south africa

On Tuesday we got a lift from Pietermaritzburg to the Pavilion Mall on the outskirts of Durban where one of our local hosts was to pick us up for a meeting with the Professional Teacher Development Institute.

Slightly confused the person we were meeting by turning up 40 minutes early - whilst we thought we were just 10 mins early for a 10:30 meeting he wasn't expecting to see us until 11.  Anyhow he managed to switch things around and, along with a colleague, spend some time with us discussing ongoing professional development for teachers.

One of the systems that we spoke about is a continued professional development approach being implemented by the South African Council for Educators.  They are developing a set of approved learning activities and accompanying tracking system to support educators in identifying and addressing their own development needs.  Last year they focused on enrolling Principals and Deputy Principals to the system.  2014 will see heads of department added and then in 2015 the wider roll out to other teachers.

It looked good and in structure was very similar to ongoing professional certification processes that I have seen inside IBM and through bodies such as the Project Management Institute.

As is so often the way with our meetings as fast as we crossed meeting them off our list we also added a couple of new meetings that need to be organised based on suggestions from them.

Back to the hotel in time for a lunchtime excursion to Woolworths whose ready made salads are really very nice - for my UK readers it reminds me very much of the feel of a small M&S food hall. Salad duly consumed w had an afternoon of  preparing for upcoming events and meetings that we have scheduled.