When the lovely Baroness Kinnock, newly appointed Minister for Africa and steadfast supporter of lifelong learning, is the keynote speaker at your launch party in a new overseas territory you know you must be doing something right.
Ok, maybe a little of last night was pure happenstance - but it is true that Learning Pool launched in South Africa at the UK Commissioner’s residence in Johannesburg – and what a location!
The house, as you can imagine, is spectacular with the beautiful gardens set off by the full effect of early summer in South Africa. The purple jacaranda trees are in evidence in all their glory right across the city.
Baroness Kinnock, Minster for Africa
To be truthful, it was a fortunate coincidence to be in Jo’burg and launching at the same time as the Minister’s visit to the city.
We chatted with the Baroness and she was very supportive of Learning Pool’s vision and plans and there was a lot of commonality between her speech and Paul’s.
It was so refreshing to see the Minister writing her own last minute notes before she addressed the crowd so that she could incorporate new comments into her speech based on the conversations she’d just been having with people she’d met during the evening.
Last minute tweaks…
Anyone who knows Paul will know that he doesn’t believe in the necessity for that sort of formal preparation for these things…
Paul McElvaney, Learning Pool
I met some great people last night including these two guys from City of Johannesburg’s Economic Development department pictured here with me.
Left to right, Nick Theledi, Mary McKenna, Hitekani Mashele
The two days we’ve been in Johannesburg so far have reinforced for us the real thirst for learning that exists in the public sector in Africa and the small but key part that Learning Pool can play in meeting at least some of that need.
My time here has also made me appreciate how lucky we are in the UK to have such easy access to a wide variety of learning resources, whenever we choose.
South African local government is currently struggling to overcome the ICT and infrastructure issues. When they’re overcome these issues that are blocking the channels right now will revolutionise learning within the sector once ubiquitous and affordable broadband is here.
Learning Pool’s product offering and the idea of the Learning Pool ‘club’ has been welcomed wholeheartedly here.
The people we’ve spoken to are keen to link into an international community of local government Learning & Development professionals who share knowledge, experience and best practice.
We are hoping to help by facilitating a learning exchange using our tried and tested tools.
And we further hope that we’ll be able to help colleagues here build capacity and improve service delivery – both of which are the key challenges to local government the world over.
Mary McKenna
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