Davids receives Director’s Award

“How does one feel about getting an award like that? Obviously you feel accomplished, you feel glad. It was a surprise. There are other colleagues who are just as hardworking and dedicated but it was a pleasant reward for me” said Mia Davids, Head Corporate Communications at the Namibia Airports Company (NAC), when she spoke to the Economist this week. Davids told of her experiences and feelings when she learnt she was nominated for and awarded the Director’s Award after successfully concluding a Management Development Programme conducted for the airports company by the University of Stellenbosch Business School. She received the award at a glamorous ceremony at the Hilton Hotel in Windhoek. The airports company management programme was facilitated by the University of Stellenbosch Business School Executive Development. Twelve management staff members completed the programme and were handed their certificates. “It’s a programme that is offered by the University of Stellenbosch for management but in this case it was done internally with NAC, only limited to NAC staff”, Davids clarified. The Director’s Award is quite an honourable award to be given to selected individuals.

“The award is entirely connected to the programme, it is not an NAC decision but that of the University of Stellenbosch”, she stated adding to her study group, Kura received the top performing group award at the event. The first of its kind for the airports company, the event was a milestone occasion, emphasising the company’s dedication to personnel development said the NAC,s acting CEO, Tamer El-Kallawi, in his address. “As a matter of principle and commitment, the NAC’s aim is to provide relevant training and development to address skills deficits and development challenges of our employees and that of the Namibian skills pool at large.” “Skills shortage has become a major challenge in this day and age. To effectively address this matter, the NAC will unreservedly continue in its strides to coordinate with industry partners and training organisations to ensure training and development opportunities for our staff” he said. Congratulating the NAC managers, he urged them to keep up the good work and continue to empower the rest of their colleagues with their newly acquired skills and knowledge. “Make the NAC proud by your strong, innovative, and excellent contributions” El-Kallawi said. The NAC managers are Eino Amaambo, Gerson Katjangua, Faye Kandjeo, Oscar Hamutenya, Sylvanus Sakaria, Johannes Vatilifa, Mia Davids, Florian Beukes, Angela Sibalatani, Bernard Sinvula, Titus Shuungula and Tangee Kao.