Prudence Pietersen hails from the small, remote Karoo town of Murraysburg in the Western Cape. She has been living in Cape Town since 2008 and took the role of Programmes Coordinator at the Mikhulu Trust in January 2023. While her background lies in sports management, she felt led to apply for the position at the Mikhulu Trust due to her passion for doing meaningful work. With strong communication skills, Prudence is fluent in three languages: English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa. In April 2023, she completed her training to become a Master Trainer in the book-sharing programme and is loving every minute.
A Master Trainer’s role is to help participants recognise how much they already know about book-sharing and to help them reinforce their knowledge through encouragement. They also need to ensure that participants understand the training materials and empower and motivate them to be effective trainers themselves.
Prudence has been hands-on from day one. At first, she observed fellow trainers and later co-trained and eventually led the training sessions on her own, after which she would receive feedback with an opportunity to make corrections going forward. “I don’t think any course could have prepared me for the training. I learned by physically doing it and by getting my hands dirty. Trial and error, do it, and when you see it does not work, try something different and try and make it better. That’s how I learned,” says Prudence.
When becoming a Master Trainer, having a sense of humour is essential and with a naturally cheerful personality, Prudence is easily likeable, making her the ideal candidate for engaging those attending the book-sharing courses. She expresses how important it is to be able to guide the conversation, to engage with and to keep the focus of the participants while keeping a two-way communication channel, and at the same time remain flexible – something she has learned from previous work experiences which she can draw on in her current role.
Another valuable quality of a Master Trainer is the ability to explain concepts in a way the participants can understand without using jargon. She tells us how she understands that not all participants are the same and that no two people will understand or receive the content in the same manner. Being able to speak three languages has been in Prudence’s favour and made her all the more flexible in her role, able to explain English concepts in Afrikaans or isiXhosa when greater clarity is required. This also puts the participants at greater ease.
Prudence goes on to explain that the Master Trainer must have the ability to read the room and see whether participants fully grasp what has been taught, coming back to certain sections if necessary. During sessions, she will make a mental note of areas which she feels require greater attention or where participants have struggled, revisiting the topic either at the end of the day or introducing it at the start of the next session to ensure all trainees are up to speed and well-equipped.
When asked about the challenges of training, Prudence admits that she does not consider it a challenge per se but makes a mental note to ensure that the trainees are participatory, actively involved and continuously motivated so that the session will keep them hungry for more the next day.
And her favourite part of being a Master Trainer? “I think it’s the want for me – you can do something because you have to but it’s a case of do you want to do it? I enjoy seeing the participants transition from coming into the room, not knowing what to expect and leaving being well-equipped to do book-sharing, feeling that they can do this and that they want to do this. I enjoy my work – I really do.”
For the Mikhulu Trust, having a master trainer in Prudence adds credibility to our organisation. Her passion for what she does is evident in her work, and we know that our beneficiaries are in capable hands with each site visit and training session she undertakes.
