First Semester Volunteer Training Day
At the start of each Semester, TeachOut conducts a Volunteer Training Day to welcome all new volunteers to the project. The first Training Day of 2011 was held on Saturday, 19 February and was attended by 60 volunteers.
At the Training Day, TeachOut Committee Members explained to new volunteers the important logistical- and administrative details associated with volunteering. Volunteers were also introduced to the TeachOut worksheets used in tutoring sessions.
The Training Day programme included a variety of informative talks presented by guest speakers. These included:
- Jon Clark, Director of the UCT Schools Development Unit. Mr Clark spoke to volunteers about tutoring in disadvantaged schools and answered volunteers’ questions during a lively question-and-answer session.
- Emily Rudolph, Head of Yabonga’s Orphans and Vulnerable Children’s Programme. Ms Rudolph spoke to volunteers about Yabonga’s youth programme, which TeachOut contributes to through the tutoring sessions we conduct four Yabonga centres.
- Jen van Heerden, Deputy-Chair of the Ubunye Board. Ms van Heerden introduced volunteers to the UCT Global Citizenship Programme. The programme includes short courses that focus on issues of social justice, citizenship and volunteering.
- Byron Ascott-Evans, a former head tutor at UCT. Mr Ascott-Evans gave a presentation on four important characteristics of a tutor, which included useful guidelines and practical tutoring tips.
At the Training Day, volunteers also signed up for their preferred sessions. By the first week of sessions, 99 new and returning volunteers had signed up to tutor during the first semester.
The Training Day was followed by a fun social event attended by volunteers from all three Ubunye projects.
The TeachOut Committee welcomes all new volunteers to the TeachOut family. We hope that your time with the project will be an enriching one.