By: Dwight Links
Woodies Creations, stemming from the Waldorf school in Windhoek, is an enterprise that is geared for learners to produce and sell wooden crafts directly to customers in the markets they serve.
Magreth Nuru-khom, the teacher and the project coordinator for the Woodwork and Training subject at the school, explained that the enterprise is a branch of the school to sell directly to the market and collect revenue.
“Learners are taught from the sixth grade, and they learn to interact with the machinery and the implements that help them participate in making their goods,” Nuru-khom explained.
She indicated that the idea of wood craft creation was born from a period during the Covid-19 pandemic when she and a friend lacked stable sources of income.
“We spoke to some of our teachers, and they proposed to us that we start making crafts and introduced us to the Windhoek green market that is based in the Klein Windhoek area,” she stated.
GROWTH
Nuru-khom explained that the training has seen positive growth by way of 20 learners being part of the process over the six-year period. According to her, learners from less fortunate backgrounds are also accepted at the school, so as to provide exposure to as many learners across the Namibian spectrum as possible.
Current learners and Nuru-khom shared their accounts how the skills exposure aids in developing creativity and improving readiness for the real world.
Two learners, Dawid and Crisentia, both highlighted that they were pleasantly taken aback by the private secondary school level that focuses more on skills development than the academic regimenting of theory that is found in public secondary schools.
Their teacher, Nuru-khom, also acknowledged that her dream was to become a lawyer, but she was convinced to explore other avenues through the exposure that she achieved since entering the real world after school.
MARKET ACCESS
The Woodies Creations have access to local markets that also facilitate an export-like market, as many tourists visit the Craft Market in the city centre.
The first market, the Green Market, was open to families and weekend visitors on Saturdays only.
Learners are guided on external projects as well to understand and interact with clients, receive and develop orders for the various customer orders that come in, and they have the ability to engage with customers for further information.
“I was fighting for two whole years on the notion of doing woodwork and learning this valuable skill, until I gave in. I also did nails as a nail technician. But, this attitude eventually changed when Covid-19 struck everyone,” Nuru-khom highlighted.
She also believes that parents began to see the actual difference in the skills that were instilled into children.
“A lot of kids could not go to school back then, and most of these schools were the predominantly theoretical schools,” she noted.
On the aspect of the kinds of clients that are attracted to the products made, the learners both explained that many clients are tourists who buy in bulk to take back to their home countries as gifts.
Learners are equipped with a combination of theoretical school training and skills from the Basic Vocational Education & Training (BVET).
These skills are then further honed through the secondary school period of the learner, which allows them to explore their strengths and identify their potential.
