Boitekanelo recognise employees

Boitekanelo College held an award ceremony to recognize those who were instrumental in its growth at Phakalane Golf Estate last year. The home grown health training institution recognized those who stayed with them from the difficult and challenging humble beginnings and those who developed Self Study Reports that earned the college the Tertiary Education Council accreditation. The organizers of the college’s first graduation, which was a success, were also recognized as well as those who shared the Managing Director’s dream and helped turn it into its present status and earned themselves the Managing Director’s award. Looking back to where it all started, proud Managing Director, Dr T.S. Mampane said three months into their jobs as young doctors at Princess Marina Hospital him and his founding partnerDr G. Saleshando were already planning their exit. “We did a lot of planning since 2006 meeting every Sunday at church for a year planning. Though we didn’t know much about business planning we did everything ourselves and that is one aspect that helped us because we googled and learned a lot in the process. What we are doing now is part of the blue print we did in 2006,” said proud Mampane. With a tree as their first board room Dr Mampane said

the partners got to work visiting the Ministry of Education from first floor to the top floor to be informed by the government wanted and to satisfy the country’s demand. “Patient Management is a multi disciplinary approach and there was a need to train auxiliaries to help with the HIV cases at the time. There were a lot of HIV cases and intervention was needed,” he said. Though they wanted 40 students they were amazed with the response from 4 000 applications and ended up taking 60 students. To achieve some of the things needed to keep going the partners had to sell shares to raise capital. The Managing Director said they were even considering charging applicants P100 to raise funds but never did and Mookodi came to their rescue with a cheque for P20 000. He further said they then started recruiting staff which was not an easy task because some of them had big salaries but some where students, friends or his homeboys. “Since then we have grown with them and we now have more than 100 employees. I still hassle to convince some that we are here to stay,” he stated. Dr Saleshando who was sharing the podium with his partner added that some people seeing the success of the college suspect that they are a franchise or are fronting. “We met many universities and lo and behold, we found ourselves in-front of professors and had to look wise,” he added that to get affiliated with the best universities they had to go as far as Singapore, Mauritius and Cape Town. The college which Dr Saleshando said has 98 percent local staff is eager to introduce more programmes and learn from the best in the country and the regional sphere. He also thanked the staff saying; “Thank you for what you are doing. There will be challenges but we will grow together and build something worthy.” Boitekanelo College Principal, Mrs. I. Magetse said the story of the college was a true ‘sack cloth to Cashmere and revealed that they would introduce degree and other key programmes. “Come August next year we will introduce Barchelor of Nursing and Care. We will also introduce degree in Nutrition. We are working behind the scenes and benchmarking with the best not to copy but improve what we learn” The next Boitekanelo foot print will be in Phikwe and Magetse said they had had repeated queries as to when they would open up in the north of the country. The Principal further stated that though their campus is located in dusty Mmopane village and has a small building they were doing great things inside. She said; “As our students pledge to serve the public we pledge to produce human resources and we are growing with our partner and mentors whom we will never stop appreciating for helping us reach our goals.” Funny man Michael Morapedi aka Dignash was the MC and the Metrophones blew out sweet melodies and moved their audience to get off their seats and celebrate success with dance.