Ilze's Journey to the Yellow File Academy
- the stories, the inspiration and the promises made -
The realization.....
Raised by a Lawyer as a Father and a Social Worker & Teacher as a Mother, the important balance between what is right within the law, rules and regulations...... and what is right from within your heart, your conscience and your empathy with others, was a guiding principle Ilze learnt from her parents from a young age.
One of the biggest testimonies at her Mother’s funeral was seeing the gardener, Flip, and the domestic worker, Mieta, writing a note to their beloved employer in their own handwriting, after a life of illiteracy. Ilze’s mother, Didi, whom many regarded a modern-day Florence Nightingale, as she tended to every person in need in her town at all hours of the day or night, changed their lives along with so many others, when she started an Adult Read-and-Write Class at their local church. This came about after she realized that none of them could read or write, despite Flip,the gardener, pretending to pick up and read the newspaper every morning. This deep passion to teach and train individuals to bring about change in their lives, simply by showing them things you already take for granted, took on a life of its own when only a few years after her Mother's passing a young woman ignited Ilze’s flame to do the same.
Below is that first graduating class of adult learners who learnt to read and write for the first time at a mature age.
- Didi
- Flip
- Mieta
And then one day you realize just how much LIKE MOTHER LIKE ME you are.......
and so IN LOVING MEMORY OF ILZE'S MOTHER.....
Ilze stopping on the street for a chat with a stranger....
.....and then coming across the photo of her Mother doing the same 30 years earlier...
Ilze - Cape Town - 2018
Didi (Ilze's mother) - Chicago - 1998
That moment you realize you are more your Mother than you thought you were......
in loving memory of Ilze's mother Didi
1937-2011
Ilze lived in 6 countries and travelled to many more. This helped her develop a great understanding of so many different cultures, expectations people have when travelling... what are the things that aggravate most tourists and what matters most to the people from these vastly different destinations.
This inevitable wealth of exposure and experience came in extremely helpful when Ilze applied this knowledge to her own business ventures in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry.
Guests Reviews on the Gallery page is evident that Ilze thoroughly understand the mindset and mentality of people who travel, attend events and stay over at other people's homes or guesthouses.
There are simply things we all want, like or dislike despite who we are and where we come from.
But not all of us have the same opportunities to build up this knowledge through travel or from living overseas for extended periods and as a result Ilze became acutely aware of how we expect a person who has never been outside the country, to understand a guest who comes from Asia or Europe. Or how we ask a person to fold a towel like they do in hotels and yet, this person has never even been inside a hotel. This type of training is only found in the formal sector of Hospitality like a Hotel Training program which most can't afford or attend due to lack of time, affordability or industry requirements. And yet, the tourism industry is exploding after the introduction of short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb with so many eligible to take part in it if only given some assistance. Despite Covid-19 and its' drastic changes to these industries, the need for people to go places and stay over, will remain and be re-invented in new ways.
This not only apply to the tourism industry, but also in other areas of small enterprises in the informal sector such as doing a small renovation project for example.
The Penny Promise....
One evening in 2014, an African girl by the name of Penny, the daughter of Ilze’s gardener at their holiday home in South Africa, pleaded with her to continue teaching her into the evening, after the day's work finished. She was not employed by the family but Ilze asked her if she could come in to work with her father so she could help Ilze watch over the construction team when Ilze would be otherwise occupied. She was 24 at the time, with no higher education or any prospect of a job at the time due to the scale of unemployment in South Africa. Applying corporate project management skills on a small building project (as you do when you can't get the "Accountant/ Project Manager" out of your system), blew Penny away and at 10 pm that night in a half-built cottage, Penny asked with and over-eager enthusiasm – “Will you please teach me EVERYTHING you know, so that I can learn from you and one day will be able to do everything just like you”.
Penny may have not had any formal training or education beyond High School but she was eager to learn with a lot of drive and ambition inside of her.
This really brought up a whole bag of beliefs that Ilze carried from those Corporate Days that started to gather some dust on her without acting on it or make something of it as originally intended.
One of the pivotal projects from Ilze's earlier career, was as the Project Manager for Finance & Admin for the World Summit on Sustainable Development that was hosted in 2004 in South Africa. It was one of the largest events South Africa had hosted to date then and the need for staffing in the weeks leading up to the actual event, necessitated bringing individuals onboard who would not normally be employed on corporate assignment. Here Ilze experienced first-hand that formal training and qualifying credentials do not always transpire into the most successful and driven employees in the workforce. In fact, those individuals who were given an opportunity which was not necessarily supported by their CV's or previous experiences and qualifications, turned out to be the ones delivering mindblowing results despite their lack of formal training for it specifically.
After receiving an award for her outstanding performance and "CAN-DO" attitude on this project, the idea was cemented in Ilze's belief that ANYBODY can be or become ANYTHING they want to be....no matter who they are, how old they are or what formal training they have had.... as long as they are willing and able to learn new things, apply their knowledge and seek opportunities. All you need to have is a
Can-Do-Attitude.
Penny was yet another individual who deserved a chance and an opportunity and the world would be her oyster.
Ilze simply replied “I promise I will, Penny”.
Not realizing the impact this would have on her for years to come.
After this informal agreement, Ilze equipped Penny with a mobile phone, a computer and a car and ... a dream team developed between the two.
Penny was literally "going places" from this day onwards..... and proudly sent this photo from outside her home in the township after receiving her car.
After Ilze got back on the plane to her home in Hong Kong, Penny, who was now on a different continent and timezone than Ilze would hardly wait for the sun to rise in South Africa before she would dial up every morning so she could start her training for the day - ready to learn via Skype. Everything from basic Excel skills to bookkeeping; how to draw the curtains before guests arrive; how to put out welcome treats or where you draw the line on guest requests. The road to becoming a Guest House Manager and an entrepreneur was being paved and Penny was rising to the occasion in a big way.
Even if it meant lesson 1 was how to switch on a computer and in the beginning the whole e-mail would come inside the subject line !!!
The important thing was each day was a day closer to Penny tapping into her potential and Ilze transferring her skill to her eager student.
It was sweet and endearing to see her grow each and every day.
This arrangement was invigorating for both, especially after Ilze raised the possibility one day in a training session that she should maybe take all the teaching material and put it into lessons, develop a "course", open an Academy and let Penny be the first to “qualify” as a Hospitality Manager. Penny was super excited and expressed her joy. It was a dream coming true for her.
And then Life happened...
October 2014
The Penny Promise
21 June 2015
Ilze arrives back SA
23 June 2015
Penny's diagnosis
26 June 2015
Penny passed away
5 July 2015
Penny's funeral
Ilze arrived back in South Africa eight months later, unbeknownst to what lied ahead that week after her arrival.
It was supposed to be a celebration of the successes managed over such a long distance.
Instead Penny was taken.
Suddenly. Unexpectedly.
On Monday a diagnosis was concluded but with the outlook that, with proper medicine, she could have a long, fulfilling life ahead of her.
That career she dreamt of.
But it was not meant to be.
By Thursday she was gone.
More business cards left in the printed stack than those handed out already.
So much potential. Gone. And Penny was laid to rest.
R.I.P Pernicia Motsemme (Pennny)
Life took many twists and turns but after a few years of being busy, moving countries again and being otherwise occupied.... Ilze could not let go of this promise she made to Penny.
Realizing it simply means that if there was a Penny, there were still many others out there with similar ambitions... who would love to learn new skills....to apply for a chance at success in life.
Ilze decided to move ahead with the the challenge of delivering the content and making good on that promise even if it meant that she had to go back to school herself and do a Business Accelerator course to get the new tools and skills in delivering it in a new format.
Building websites and recording videos are challenges you don't have to deal with if you just live out your passions in realtime and in person.
But in 2018, after completion of that course, she said live on air that she would. And she did
THE YELLOW FILE ACADEMY was established as an online platform to reach those who want to obtain a certain skill for a certain industry.
It is a vibrant, modern-day platform of blended learning where learners can obtain a basic skill set, but in GREAT DETAIL.
It is in its infancy and the hope and dream is for it to grow and evolve into something bigger...but for now just making an impact one person at a time.
The Academy as a platform is an attempt to bring some skill and teachings to those who have not been exposed to such opportunity with the objective that through upliftment and education more people can be equipped to serve the demands of the increasing tourist population as well as other industries where these individuals can have an impact on the economy if they can use those skills to start generating income on their own.
THE MANDELA SPIRIT
In true Mandela Spirit, a dream come true would be if 67 students, representing the 67 years of Mandela's struggle, could become better equipped to enter into the job market of today and realize their dreams by earning an income from their God-given talents despite their lack of formal training.
There is a creativitiy and curiousity in a country like South Africa, that offers one of the best locations on the Planet in the Tourism Industry. Individuals are bursting with eager enthusiasm, only to be faced with an inability to move forward due to past inequalities.
Ilze has therefore made the course free for the first 67 applicants. This would be a dream come true if there would be 67 "Penny's" who just would know something more than the day they found the courses.
On THE YELLOW FILE ACADEMY there is a video explaining how this works.