TIME WELL SPENT!

The Motheo Academy learnership meant acquiring a new survival skill for this 24-year-old.

Shaquille Essack grew up without a father and as he got older, he felt the pressure to be able to provide for his family. “I am the eldest and knowing that my younger siblings needed help made me want to make something of my life,” says Shaquille The first thing that caught his attention about the Motheo Academy was the fact that the learnership would mean he gets a certifiable qualification. “I know how important it is to have qualifications if you want to get ahead in life. I had worked in a cleaning company before but knowing that I could have a certificate made me want to be part of this.” At the beginning of the learnership, Shaquille felt that there was a lot of tension among the students. “Because we all come from different parts of Westbury, we didn’t trust each other. That made it a bit stressful at the beginning but once we got to know each other better, that tension went away. That was a reminder that our neighbourhood has its own set of rules that don’t always make it easy for people to get along,” he says. While he enjoyed every phase of his curriculum, Shaquille says the thing that has changed his life the most was learning about time management. “I was never taught the importance of time and managing it. Now that I know that every minute I have is worth something, I look at my life differently. This experience has taught us how to survive in the world of being professional; I think that gives us more of an opportunity to make it in the world," says Shaquille. Shaquille thinks that he wants to work and study further. “I think construction could be for me and I want to use what I have to create even more opportunities for myself.”