Chester House Vocation Incubator Programme

Elixir was very excited by the opportunity to take a whole group of Grade 11's though it's Vocation Incubator process. The challenge for schools is to provide the coaching required for young people to make authentic choices around tertiary degree, work experience and ultimately careers.

 Our process is very holistic in that it uses a wide variety of modalities to develop the self awareness of young people. The process starts with a survey to help students understand who and what has been influencing their choices while exploring their beliefs, ideas and most importantly the dominant emotions that they are experiencing. These results where shared among the group to show people that they are not alone in their confusion while also giving people insights into the various motives that drive people's decisions.

For many young people it is very confusing having to balance the opinions of parents, peers and the limited window of experience that they have in the real world with what inspires and engages them in the present. The programme is very geared towards giving people the confidence to cultivate their passions, values and abilities while showing them that there are opportunities out there in the market place that will support there personal fulfillment and financial prosperity. 

The 1st stage of the incubator was incorporated into Grade 11 hike to the Cederburg. Elixir specialises in eco-facilitation where nature is used as a vehicle to connect each person to their sense of purpose and as a guide in how to apply universal principles to career development. The culmination is a vision quest where young people translate their new knowledge around self awareness, emotional needs and personal values into an inspiring mission that is the platform for the rest of the process.

Through further coaching back at school, each student was coached into distilling down their vision into a holistic personal development framework that created goals accross 10 year, 1 year and 1 month periods. Not only does the tool enable young people to appreciate how our fulfilment is integrated accross life areas such as the physical, spiritual, financial and family, but that through applying effective time management, people can realise their visions and plan there lives more effectively.

A key part of vocation development at their stage is experience. How young people are expected to choose between 40,000 potential careers with a few days of immersion is a mystery. As such, Elixir coached the young people into developing research driven internships that answered key questions related to their own vocation journey. The sessions were used to overcome the common yet very seldomly alleviated fears about stepping into the workplace for the first time. Through a greater appreciation for their own unique value proposition and that they can always add value, they felt more confident to position themselves were they would benefit more.

Dove tailing this process was the emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship. Not only where the students required to complete a work experience, but they also had to proactively seek ways of innovating for the company. Through stimulating this drive, it made students aware of the reality that certifications and degrees do not guarantee employment, only the ability to add value in whatever circumstance they find themselves pursuing. The students were encouraged to present their innovations to their parents and employers.

The Chester Hosue programme was the first pilot of the Vocation Incubator in schools and the feedback has been very positive. This is what the head master James Fraser had to say!

In 2011 Elixir presented a vocational programme that was integrated into the schools existing Outdoor Education Programme. Led by Jeremy Behrman the programme challenged pupils to give developing a sense of personal and professional direction the time it deserved.

In addition we as a school found Jeremy’s experience helpful in professionalising our approach to careers education, which we wanted to raise to the next level. I also appreciated Jeremy’s flexibility in dealing with the challenges that working in a young school such as ours presented.

Cape Union Mart

 

Being a company that is closely linked with the great outdoors, Cape Union Mart were excited to have Elixir take their Sales Champions on a personal development experience that rewarded them for their superior performance.With Elixir being an organisation that creates team building and incentive experiences with a strong personal development focus, it was a great synergy.

The experience was help at Bush Willow Tented Camp a mere 30 minutes outside of Johannesburg. It would be difficult to find a venue that offers a better wilderness immersion experience so close to the heart of the city. The full day experience took the group along the Crocodile river and then up onto the top of Swartzkop mountain. On route, the group saw Giraffe, Zebra, Wildebeest, Wart Hog and a range of buck.

The experience itself was designed to give the sales team a gift that we all seek in our lives. A Journey! It takes powerful story telling, coaching and passion to transform a day trip into a rites of passage that would be a catalyst in the personal development of these sales people. Jeremy Behrmann, the Elixir Director, who is a pioneer of wilderness based coaching in South Africa was able to engage the group in powerful narrative that has valuable insights into personal fulfilment.

Throughout the experience, the Elixir facilitator was engaging them in a wide variety of coaching process designed to develop their self awareness, reflection capability and collaboration skills. Being a largely sales driven organisation, the group learnt about the evolution of our societal value systems from when we were small tribes living in the Cradle of Mankind, which was roughly 50 km's away, to present day. Their ability to be successful sales people was down to their understanding and appreciation of peoples emotional needs and how they can be leveraged to influence the buying decisions of consumers. This new awareness was valuable not only in terms of increased sales but also how to influence action in relationships and personal behaviour.

The finale of the experience was vision development process held on top of the Swartzkop mountain overlooking the whole of Johannesburg. Each participant renewed and enriched their personal mission and shared it with the group. Having all shared, participants were invited to acknowledge the visions of their fellow colleagues while also handing them the end of a rope that symbolised their exchange. By the time everyone had finished the group had created a web of connections that reminded people that to be truly fulfilled themselves, they needed to enrich the lives of others. That is the key to true customer service!

Testimonial From Derryn Bolton, Learning & development Manager at Cape Union Mart

I had the pleasure of working with Jeremy and the Elixir Group in May of this year where we enlisted his support to facilitate an outdoor intervention with twelve of our top performing sales staff in the country.

As an outdoor lifestyle retailer, we found Jeremy’s principles of learning and development to be perfectly synergistic to our core business; as he uses nature as a teacher, and draws a lot of powerful metaphors to life, from our very beautiful natural surroundings.

It became quite clear that this kind of facilitation is Jeremy’s forte. He handled the at times, rather challenging group with skill, poise and diplomacy. Most memorable was the way in which he took the group through a process of awakening, awareness, reflection and goal-setting. We ended the day on a perfectly orchestrated crescendo – atop a hill overlooking the breathtaking landscape below, sharing our collective and freshly penned “Life Manifesto’s”. What a beautiful journey!

I know our teams took a lot of value from the experience. Some asked themselves questions they’ve never asked themselves before, and everyone learnt a lot about themselves along the way.

Thank you Jeremy for guiding our teams to live a life of greater personal purpose, for awakening them to the powerful fact that nature is our teacher, and providing them with a magnificent nature-based experience in the process!

We look forward to the next one!

Yours sincerely,

Deryn Bolton

HRD Manager

Michaelhouse School

Two of the most significant challenges facing young people and the schools that are designed to prepare them for the future is career development and drug/alcohol abuse.What people don't fully embrace is how inextricably linked the two are together. Young people have never had more opportunity to express their authentic capabilities and passions through the world of work, yet greater levels of choice often brings complexity, confusion and sheer overwhelm for not only the children but also the parents and schools.

Of the 40,000 odd careers out there, roughly half of them change completely every 10 years. How schools and universities are able to respond to such changes from a curriculum perspective is very interesting indeed. These difficulties can also be experienced by parents who are often seen as the first port of call for career guidance yet when they were making these decisions, there was but a fraction of the choices that confront young people who are expected to change careers 4-5 times in their life time. Navigating these choices brings a huge amount of emotion as young people have to step out of the safety of the tribe and embrace their individuality,values and ideals. This journey can be hugely challenging! Young people confront the conflicting need to conform to the wishes of parents and pressure from peers with the need to embrace one's unique sense of meaning and purpose. The reality is that drugs and alcohol will always be a vehicle that young people use to escape, medicate and rebel against the responsibility that they face. Without any form of rites of passage that helps young people to understand and appreciate the nature of this journey, they often are not able to make effective choices.

Jeremy Behrmann was invited to speak to the Michaelhosue school on their Old Boys day. He has had significant experience in helping people overcome the challenges related to addiction and is also a specialist coach in career and vocation development.His company offers wilderness based rites of passage experiences to young people who need the support to discover their unique purpose.He follows this up with vocation based coaching which supports personal development and academic effectiveness. His philosophy is that the supply of substances will never be eradicated. The only solution is to reduce demand by giving young people an alternative that is more pleasurable than the drugs themselves. Nothing engages young people more than their desire to be accepted socially and to discover their unique personal vision.Often young people take drugs and alcohol for these very reasons- to connect, be accepted, experiment and to explore. The problem with school is that we are given very few opportunities to make our own unique vision and are often told what we can expect from our lives and our careers. We are told that we need to choose 6 subjects, from those subjects we have a choice of tertiary degrees that open doors to specific careers that may not even exist when we graduate, never mind the fact that young people have no experience of these careers when they make these choices.

Through greater awareness we make better choices and often young people abuse drugs because they have no awareness of the potential consequences of their behaviour. Many drug talks often try to scare young people with these consequences but they always make the mistake of underestimating how much stronger the need for acceptance and rebellion can be for young people than their health. At the same time,what schools don't always fully appreciate is how hungry young people are to develop their own self esteem and personal significance. Unfortunately what young people find meaningful and significant is not what schools will always embrace or feel to be in the best interests of a young persons career development.

The truth is that companies themselves are no better at predicting the future than schools themselves. Of all the new products and services that companies offer, only 4% of them are in response to pro-active R&D. The other 96% are in response to culture shocks, global trends and unexpected phenomena that companies could not predict. The people who are often leading these changes are the youth themselves and it appears that schools are trying to educate them out of what they find interesting and into subjects that are mere legacies of the old industrial model. The fact that Facebook is banned in most schools is a classic example of schools not teaching people through a medium that young people can relate too and which will become the dominant platform of the future.

Young people do have to go to school to build a solid foundation and often schools do provide the basic building blocks of personal development. Where they need to be flexible and in tune with is what engages young people and stirs them emotionally. Those little interests,desires and passions are the keys to a personal vision and mission which could be an alternative to abuse. If young people have no empowering vision that is an alternative to the pleasure that young people gain from drugs, how can we expect them to say no when exposed to them? If we can take a risk and embrace young people as being responsible, independent and able to create their own reality, we can also start a conversation where they are emotionally invested in how drugs and alcohol can take them away from a vision that they created and which they take ownership of. 

Engagement Survey-Arctic Healthcare

The biggest challenge for many business managers is to understand what is really driving the performance of their employees and the organisation as a whole. It used to be thought that money and succession where the primary motivators of employees yet new research is showing that many more factors contribute towards the new art and science of employee engagement. The ability of the organisation to meet the highly sophisticated emotional needs of employees will determine how engaged their workforce is in relation to their competitors. The fact that emotions are the fuel of innovation, collaboration, leadership and productivity, it makes sense for companies to treat employees holistically as opposed to mere job descriptions. The Gallup organisation has done significant studies into employee engagement and found that it has huge implications for the strategic objectives of companies. Some examples include:

• Engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave the organisation than the disengaged!
• 59% of engaged employees say that their job brings out their most creative ideas against only 3% of disengaged employees.
• Increased employee engagement was accompanied by a 12 per cent increase in customer satisfaction and significant double-digit revenue and margin growth over the past three years.

The key question is how do we measure employee engagement effectively? 

The Arctic Engagement Survey was held between the 9^th and the 18^th of March. The survey was completed by 23 out of the 26 staff members who were approached. The survey was commissioned to understand how Arctic was performing in the key areas of staff engagement and fulfilment. It posed 27 quantitative and 3 qualitative questions around the following areas.

• Career Development
• Communications
• Compensation
• Culture & Work Environment
• Employee Commitment/ Job Satisfaction
• Life Balance / Morale / Productivity
• Leadership/ Working Relationships  

The Arctic Engagement Survey was designed to achieve the following key results:  

• Allow staff to share perspectives,beliefs,ideas anf feelings key to their personal fulfillment in a confidential way. They are given the opportunity to express themselves with a level of openness and honesty that is just not possible in some organisations given the nature of office politics, victimisation and competition.
• Gives management  deeper insight into the organisation such that they can evaluate key engagement indicators over time and adjust strategy to optmise staff performance.
• Identify variances in the organisation according to variables such as region, department, age and duration with the organisation.
• Provide management with valuable affirmations of their strengths while also identifying key problems that are contributing towards staff turnover, low productivity and poor customer service.

What Elixir provided

• Customised organisational survey based on key engagement drivers that support the unique strategic objectives of the organisation
• Coordination of organisation survey
• Analysis of results and creation of detailed reports the simplify the complex and extensive feedback using visual and narrative tools.
• Provide coaching to decision makers that allow them to respond to the feedback in the most effective way.  

Teacher Training- Education Week

Elixir was invited to present a workshop at this years Education Week Conference. The conference is a forum that is attended by key stakeholders including government, private education institutions and international experts. Spintelligent, the organisers of Education week were interested in Elixir's innovative approach to developing a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation in schools. In South Africa, our education system has to contend with many issues that go beyond the normal challenges that schools face in ensuring that schooling prepares people for the 21st century.On top of the fact that curriculum's cannot respond quick enough to the rapid pace of change in the global economy and to the development of knowledge around what constitutes a 21st century education, South Africa also has a host of other problems related to funding, poverty, teacher training and the legacy of the apartheid era.  In spite of all our efforts to overcome these issues, Elixir believes that we are still missing the mark in giving young people the real skills needed for the world at large and that the solutions we need are not that far out of reach-in fact, they are very simple!

There is no question that job creation and entrepreneurship are the most vital goals of education, yet efforts to develop these in schools remain limited, which reflects in the fact that with a 26% unemployment rate we are scoring as badly as 41 out of 43 in certain categories of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. There is no way that you can develop an innovation and entrepreneurial mindset by having "Entrepreneurship Day" or "Innovation Day". Elixir believes that students have to be consistently challenges and re-enforced to start developing themselves in these critical areas. There is no question that the best people to provide this support are the teachers who have the most access to them each day and who educate in the formal subjects that make up the bulk of he curriculum. The challenge however is how do we develop this culture within the framework of an established and highly entrenched curriculum that is supported by an old paradigm of what costumes an effective education?

The next question is how do we incorporate all of these must have skills into curriculum programs that are jam packed? This question is what inspired Elixir to come up with the Entrepreneurship Incubator workshop for teachers. The guidelines were that it had to draw on all of the learning's that Elixir had acquired in developing vocations, leadership and innovation with countless organisations and with dynamic entrepreneurs. The next imperative was that teachers could facilitate these results in a maximum of 5 minutes in each class. Our belief is that with correct planning, preparation and delivery, one could always create a powerful learning in 5 minutes and find the time in the normal curriculum to do so.  Finally,in those 5 minutes teachers had to facilitate all the practical skills that were being ignored or poorly implemented by schools, they included.

-Developing young people's networking ability

-Developing each students self awareness around personal vision,passions,values and abilities.

-Develop students creative problem solving ability

-Inspiring students to be innovative and entrepreneurial

-Ensuring that students consistently set a powerful and intention for their future and their day while managing their expectations and the challenges they confront daily.

-Developing each students unique vision and vocation development

-Challenging young people to increase their industry exposure &  work experience

This may sound like what schools are already doing and what they should be doing anyway but let me give you an example of what the workshop includes,. Let us consider the first objective, developing the networking capability of students. Networking is about developing connections that share similar passions, values and abilities and who share a common vision with you. Most people in the business world will tell you that it is not what you know but who you know! Sales people will also tell you that the best source of new business is either from friends, existing customers or referrals, because they either believe in your value or trust someone else's opinion enough to give you a chance. Ask most people how they got their job and they will tell you through a contact or through one of their families connections. I met 100's of educators at the conference and not one told me that they teach young people how to network! Networking is one of the most critical life skills which requires self-confidence, open mindedness, creativity, communication, self awareness , enthusiasm and a want to come from a place of service to those that you meet. I have been to so many networking sessions and still I am met by grown adults who have no idea how to connect with people to sell themselves, sell their product and how to create opportunities.To think that people are meant to develop these skills as soon as they graduate is crazy.

As a result, we train teachers to be able to facilitate networking sessions and ask effective coaching questions that develop the attitudes, skills and systems that support effective networking.In 5 Minutes, I asked teachers to develop what they saw as their key value proposition, an expression of the value that they can offer to people and society and a reflection of their passions and abilities. Just asking young people to define their value proposition starts them on the vocation development journey and no matter how educated you are, you can still be passionate, enthusiastic and hungry to learn. In 5 minutes I asked the teachers to write their core passion on a piece of paper and walk around the room holding it up in the air with pride. Soon , we had 6 groups of people that shared similar passions in education standing in circles talking about their challenges, ideas and interests. This is the source of innovation, connections and self esteem. "A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." .Those words by Margaret Mead speak into the importance of creating powerful support bases from young people to develop their lives and the country at large.  I asked many of the teachers whether they had asked children one question? How big is your database? I also asked them whether their database reflected their interests or their ambitions? I asked whether they had connected with the one person that has achieved success in a specific area that they valued? It is sad that often the answers that I get to these questions are often the limiting beliefs that stop us form connecting with people. "He won't have time for me!" "I have nothing of value to offer him!" "I am to scared!"

The Elixir Education Incubator is a new approach to giving teachers the practical tools to start developing a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship within schools. We appreciate that for it to be effective it has to be practical, very simple and it must be based on the coaching principles that support learner engagement, ownership and self awareness.The Education Week workshop was a resounding success and for those of you who are interested in reading the comments from the 30 or so educators who were in the workshop, please see below. Attendees were asked to rank out of 10 the degree to which the workshop gives practical tools that could be used in creating a culture of Innovation & Entrepreneurship. They were also asked what they workshop did very well. For those of you have any quetions or who woulf like to knwo what the workshop involves, please contact Jeremy on 021 685 6744 or jerem@elixirgroup.co.za

School	Name	E-mail	Score/10	Comment	Do well?
	AR Brown
	Ebrahim Vanja	vania.ebrahim@gmail.com	8	Very relevant for teachers	It equips educators with skills to address many learners issues in our education systems
	Makobo Julia	?	8	Tools used were very relevant to day to day experiences	The facilitator offered will communicated skills that can be used in personal and professional develoopment
Capricorn College for FET	Makgabo Agnes Shongoane	mshongoane@capricorncollege.co.za	8	The workshop was very relevant and hands on	The workshop made the delgates aware of some of the key issues in education that are sometimes overlooked.
Capricorn College for FET	NL Selowa	lselowa@capricorncollege.co.za	7	The workshop was very practical	The workshop was very effective in creating delegate participation and helping them to discover their abilities.
	MA Montsi	mafubeinter@galmail.co.za	10	Excellent-it could improve the state of our institutions	It gives us more relevant information we can use back home
West Coast College	Nomathemba Nkila Dapula	nnkila@westcoastcollege.co.za	7	Lot of work covered in a short time	lets you think and draw from your own experience
Univen	Dr Aaron Ravhudzulo	ravhudzulo@univen.ac.za	8		It opened the eyes of delegates on how to coach learners
Vhembe FET College	TP Malima	tpmalima@yahoo.com	10	It was awesome as all the things were covered	Modelling and practically engaging everybody on real issues
Capricorn College for FET	KJ Phochana	kphochana@capricorncollege.co.za	8		Focus on development
Vhembe FET College	SC Khubana	fetvhembe@telkomsa.net	7	Most of the issues discussed were praactical and applicable	New ideas and innovations were discussed.
	Linda Stofile Hlahla	lindastofilehlahla@yahoo.com	8		It outlins the challenges es experienced by the sector and showed pays to explore for increased productivity and performance
	Nkanyiso shezl	mkanyisos@nissan.co.za	8	It helped me to discover myself	teaches one to develop a positive attitude in understanding others
	BV Ntuli		8		Constant interaction with the facilitator by the educators
	Jemima Phoeko		10	The workshop was excellent
EEC Fet	Francois gouws	francoisg@eec.edu.za	8	User friendly and realistic	Highlight possibilities to assist students to have hope
	Montsi Tumelo	mafubeinter@galmail.co.za	10	It was fascinating,enjoyable and more practical
	Dolo Malose	dolomalose@gmail.com	6	In some examples I found them abstract	Helped me to realise that simple things that are disregarded can contribute significantly to education
Univen	Peter Mulaudzi	peter.mulaudzi@univen.ac.za	7	It does address teacher innovation and developments	Exposes particpants to skills that are value-laden and which work with learners.
MGI	Fiona McCalister	fiona@mgi.ac.za	8	I woudl have given it a 9, if there were more exampels of applying what we learnt	It gives you new ways of thinking of things, gives you new perspectives
	Leonard Kope Malatsi	kope.malatsi@gmail.com	6		It helps introduce a good approach towards value proposition to students
HRE Polytechnic	Stephen Raza	straza@afritechno.com	8	I thought it had the ingrediants of a positive way of thinking about life	Practical excercises
	M Tshilshwalivha		8	It was very clear
Hluvuka High School	GW Nkonyani	gwnkonyani@gmail.com	8		Motivating participants to have self confidence and innovative ideas to help people grow in their leadership skills
Gauteng Education dept	Thandeka Masondo	thandeka.masondo@gauteng.gov.za	8	It was very practical and relevant	It blended very well with the coaching concept
GEK Fet College	KMD Lethuba	doo@sekfetcol.co.za	7	Near excellent	Networking and Interaction
DUT	Darren Lorton	dlorton@dut.ac.za	8.5	Set of practical transferrable skills were acquired	Opportunities to engage with eachother and each issue.
Univen	Samuel Mashau	takalani.mashau@univen.ac.za	7		Students may have the feeling that they have potential and can takle any obstacle
Sek Fet College	Tefu Alletah	tefuc@sekfetcol.co.za	8	The workshop covered most of the critical areas,I am impressed, excellent work	Making one realise that nothing is impossible in life. It only needs one to think out of the box and develop a culture of continual brain excercise