It’s difficult navigating one’s way through life, no matter your age. At the Naga Lipudi Career, Science and Resource Centre in the historic municipal building of the Mogale City Local Municipality, they strive to help all people, from primary school to high school learners, to adults considering future employment or trying to find a job right now.

Whether in an individual capacity or as part of a larger group, such as in the case of a class outing, visitors are taken through every step of the process, the first being a personality test consisting of 72 yes/ no styled questions which helps to determine the person’s personality type.

Each personality type is assigned a colour, with green representing the ‘doers’, red the ‘thinkers’, orange the ‘entrepreneurs/ persuaders’, blue the ‘social types’, yellow the ‘conventional’ types, and XX the ‘creative types’. A person can fall into more than one category, but the strongest two or three are focused on to determine suitable careers.

In the second room, participants report to a station according to their main personality colour. Here they watch a video explaining their personality type in depth. Thereafter they go to a second station where various job sectors are defined in video form. The third station goes into more depth about each job within each sector, and participants can view it on a computer screen or in one of the comprehensive books on display.

Further, visitors are guided around the centre where various illustrations and diagrams explain for example which routes one can take through the schooling process to be able to do certain jobs. Some may chose to stop in high school, receive training in the workplace, attend a college or a university, and decide to which NQF level to study. Other illustrations teach visitors how to create a successful résumé, what to expect during a job interview, and what the job search looks like.

Visitors can book a career guidance tour beforehand by contacting Tolo Sabelo on 082 927 7666. There are no costs involved. Tolo explained that many school groups had done the tour, with Pro-Practicum having been there just a week before, but said they wished to invite each school to book a session at the centre.

The centre was named after the late MCLM Executive Mayor, Councillor Naga Patrick Lipudi and was established by the Rand Water Foundation to the tune of R4,5 million. The centre officially opened its doors on December 4, 2020 and has been helping young and old ever since.