Young athletes learn about career options

Keeping to its goal of developing children on and off the athletics track and field, a non-profit organisation, Born2BeElite, held a careers workshop for its athletes at Surrey Primary School.

The event, on Saturday, gave the youngsters a chance to meet various professionals including Athlone News journalist Hazel Allies-Husselman, former principal and education specialist Jimmy Slingers, paramedic Anthony White, network engineer Shukri Wiener, and environmental health practitioners Ignatia Mawila and Chavonne Classen-Goliath, among others.

Kaltoema Benjamin, the administrator of Born2BeElite, said they wanted to expose their athletes to various career options.

“We hope to do more workshops like this with them, as one could see the positive impact it had on them. They also got a basic first-aid course as part of the programme. We are also gearing up for the track and field season and our training will start soon.

“This year, one of our athletes, Mbalentle Msutu, made the Western Province under-13 team for netball. We are very proud of her. We will be working hard to assist our athletes in achieving their dreams on the sports field as well as the classroom,” Ms Benjamin said.

Mbalentle, 12, said she hoped to be a paramedic one day.

“The paramedic who spoke to us today (Anthony White) explained what the job entails and he made it so much easier for me to understand and make my career choice. Mr White is my role model,” she said.

Zandile Mahlangu, 13, said she had set her eyes on being an environmental health practitioner.

“I really enjoyed the talks and our interaction. I want to make a difference by helping to create a clean and safe environment for our communities, so being an environmental health practitioner would suit me very well,” Zandile said.

Rania Davids, 12, said there were so many career options she could pursue, but the workshop had helped her narrow down her choices.

Imaad Abrahams, 13, said the workshop was interesting.

“It made me like a few things I didn’t give thought to before. I’d like to do engineering, but I am still deciding which kind of engineering. I now know which subjects I need to choose. I found it interesting to hear how diverse the jobs are. I also liked it when they shared their challenges in their jobs and how they rose above it,” he said.

Mbali Mahlangu, 15, said: “Today broadened my horizons and all the guests gave us the reality of being a journalist or a paramedic, for example. All of the careers seem interesting.”

To support the athletics programme, contact Ms Benjamin at 083 743 8622.