Five PROTEC branches hosted students from various tertiary institutions in the July holidays for one-day workshops that covered challenges and uncertainties the students face at their respective colleges and universities, to launch PROTEC communities on the different campuses, and to introduce them to key soft skills.
The workshops were presented by PROTEC and took place in Umbogintwini, Stanger, and Tongaat in KZN, Soweto in Gauteng, and Nelspruit in Mpumalanga.
Students on the same campus were grouped together, and discussions included challenges they face, as well as possible solutions to the challenges. In discussing the on-campus PROTEC communities, students made suggestions about the campus environments where PROTEC students could interact and support each other. Students were also given introduced to key soft skills as identified by employers, and why it’s so important to learn them.
Student Ntombela’s response to the post school initiative was: “This workshop was really educational and it showed me that the problems that I seem to face every day, are not my problems alone. I really liked it that we came up with solutions to every obstacle I was facing. This workshop literally became the help and the therapy I needed. I am very grateful. It provided the strength I needed to keep going in my studies.”
Student Sindiswa said, “I found the post school workshop very interesting. It was refreshing meeting students from other universities and from different provinces. We came together and spoke about challenges we experience at university. I thought I was the only one experiencing these problems, but  now I know many students, even on other campuses, experience the same problems. It was good to socialise with other students who have the same mentality as you.”