Rita Becker

Cooperation with university staff

The lecturing part was familiar to me and went easy and hand in hand with the lecturers. The project work was something new for all of us. So we went through tough storming, forming, performing phases. At times we seemed to get lost. I tried to bring in clear structures to the project team. This helped a lot to get security and comfort to achieve the goals step by step. The university staff was highly motivated and hard working. So, I am very proud that we managed to kick-off this project and to establish a good base for running the “NUST agency”. Since part of the project was piloting with an SME, I also had the chance to work with a real customer. I was impressed by the professionalism, the seriousness, the caring for employees and the speed of acting of the owner of the SME. Together, we were able to achieve tangible results in such a short time. All in all, this was a great success for the whole team with our first SME.

Cooperation with students

After we had identified the needs of our SME, we recruited the students that we could offer an internship. We received solid applications and selected 3 students after our interviews. These students are in their last year before their bachelor degree. I was impressed, by their willingness to work hard, by their discipline and by their skills especially on labour law. They were curious, interested and asked questions. They also accepted to take ownership. Also here we went through the storming, forming, performing phases. There was a time where they looked very puzzled especially after the dress rehearsal that we did for a training of our SMEs employees. After the training they were all happy and proud to receive such a good feedback from our customer, the SME. The students experienced how it is to work in business, how to take ownership and how they can help themselves to achieve targets. I am sure they have gained more self-confidence during these two weeks.

Impact and win-win

The project “NUST Agency” aims to ensure win-win situations from collaboration between students, SMEs and the university. So, I believe the project can have a very high impact. Personally, it was a great chance for me to help kicking-off this Agency. Since I am very much interested in business, it was also a great privilege to get some first-hand insights from an SME in Namibia.

Personal message

The “NUST Agency” has started small and has a huge potential for all stakeholders. I hope that it will grow successfully and that it will create win-win situations on a sustainable base. I also enjoyed the classes with the honoured students in “Advanced Performance Management” and “Career”. Since most of them are working, I also learned a lot about how businesses operate in Namibia.

Thank you everybody for this great time here in Namibia!