NPO teaches children to become leaders
They have only 40 cadets but next year, they are going to start recruiting every year in their programme.
NPO Training Ship Springs teaches children from the age of 11 to 18 to become cadet seaman.
Lt Commander (SCC) Chris Hand explains that their role is to teach them maritime orientated skills.
“We work on a rank structure much as the navy does. The cadets start as new entries where they are clueless about the course. For six months, we teach them everything that they will be doing and they do assessments,” said Hand.
He said when they pass the assessment, they become cadet seaman and that is where they start the leadership development.
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“This is when they continue with their curriculum, learning about leadership and what will be their roles. They are assessed again to become a cadet-able seaman. This is equivalent with the navy structure,” he added.
“One of the advantages of this is when they want to apply for the navy, they will normally walk into the job because of the leadership skills they have been taught.
“This will be recognised by the discipline, which has been instilled and on how they hold themselves.
“It is an extra curriculum where we meet on Saturdays and normally with school holidays, we try putting something together where we go sailing or camping,” he said.
He said they put a lot of emphasis on citizenship. They talk about how they need to properly communicate with each other and even with people.
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Their joining fee is R1 300 and there is a monthly fee for the staff. Everything they do has to be funded somewhere.
“Most of my students are from Kwa-Thema and also around the Springs area. We don’t make a profit and because we struggle with money, we look for donations and sponsorship to keep our boat afloat.”
They have only 40 cadets but next year, they are going to start recruiting every year in their programme.
“We don’t take more than 100 people purely because we don’t have many facilities. But everyone is welcome because currently, I have cadets from Thembisa, Boksburg, Springs and Kwa-Thema,” he said.
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