Young woman leads youth by example

MBOMBELA – Tembi-Jean Topham’s ascendancy on the corporate ladder reads almost like a fairy tale. The 33-year-old started work as an entry-level data capturing clerk at the SPAR Lowveld Distribution Centre and has made her way up the ranks to human resources executive. Working with and developing people are her passions.

She said, “I have a great desire to understand human behaviour, having been involved in the training of staff over the years.

So I try to inspire them to do and be more.”

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SPAR’s involvement with the Partners for Possibility (PfP) initiative and Topham on board, became a match made in heaven. “Developing people is encoded in my DNA, which stems from my parents who were driven to exile in Germany in protest at the disparities in education for South Africans.”

Topham expressed her fervent hope that, in future, an education system would be introduced which all South African children could springboard from. Her partner school is Cyril Clarke Secondary School in Mataffin and her journey with principal Thokozile Masondo, has had its share of ups and downs.

Despite this, they are keen on working together to ensure that pupils are empowered with skills which will stand them in good stead after they have matriculated. The JumpStart job skills portal is essential on this journey where they impart the muchneeded skills through a two-week leadership programme. Subsequent to this, a database is created which is sent to retailers which need employees.

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“The main aim of PfP is about building the school leadership team. It is more about connecting with people.”

She added that all too often, businesses offer solutions to communities without understanding their needs and empowering them. Through her working relationship with the principal she has discovered that principals face challenges which are often not placed in the spotlight. Her association with PfP has fostered a mindset change and her parents’ exile has engendered within her with the need to create tangible solutions to benefit the unemployed youth.

“We want to be at the centre of our communities. This is an opportunity to have or create a sustainable legacy of transforming our youth into employable citizens by bridging the gap between matric and the working world.”

With her impressive résumé, she juggles being a mother and wife with a tight work schedule, and she maintains that time management is a priority because her parents, through their own struggles, have instilled in her a love of education. It is this, and the support of her husband, which drives her to want to be part of a legacy which will see opportunities made available to school leavers on a level playing field.