Kim Dry-Courtois  Managing Director

Kim is the founder of VeryCoolIdeas and has infused the business with her own brand of enthusiasm and professionalism. Discovering her calling for training and development early in her career, Kim has successfully completed several national and international qualifications in Education, Training and Development and is constantly looking at new and exciting ways to make learning a fantastic and empowering experience. Kim is passionate about outcomes-based learning and assessment and was one of the very first assessors to be trained in South Africa.

Prior to starting her own successful company, Kim started her career in the retail industry, progressing from Sales Assistant at Truworths to Sales Manager within the Foschini Group. Kim's key responsibility as Sales Manager was managing the overall performance of the store, including staff performance, stock control, expense management and generating turnover. It was during her tenure at Foschini Group, that Kim was introduced to the world of training. Showing drive and initiative, Kim provided basic customer service, product knowledge and security training to her staff to ensure her store remained a key performer in the Group.

It was not until Kim took the position of Training Officer at SA Druggist in 1995 that she realised her passion for outcomes based learning and assessment, which she credits as being the cornerstone of her career. Shortly after joining SA Druggists, Kim was promoted to Training Manager. This new role included skills analysis of employees and facilitation of training programmes with external providers as well as budget planning and quality assurance thereof. In 1997, Kim became one of the very first learners in South Africa to successfully complete her Assessor Training with Corporate College International (CCI) in Johannesburg.

Driven by her passion for a more 'hands on approach' to outcomes based learning programmes, Kim joined CCI in 1997 as an Education and Training Specialist. This role provided Kim with the opportunity to train, assess and report on the performance of learners as well as develop new training material.

In 2000, Kim founded VeryCoolIdeas. Kim takes pride in the fact that VeryCoolIdeas was one the first training providers to become fully accredited with ETDP Sector Education and Training Authority. VeryCoolIdeas is a leading training provider, experienced in delivering professional, valuable education and skills development programmes to a variety of industries enabling immediate contributions to the workplace. VeryCoolIdeas' client base spans small, medium sized and corporate organisations as well as government organisations including Services SETA, the South African Reserve Bank, Standard Bank, Vodacom and Multichoice. Kim is pioneering the continued success of VeryCoolIdeas, evident in the appointment of two additional directors in October 2008.

Kim is in the process of completing her National Diploma in Education, Training and Development and has successfully completed a host of further national and international qualifications in training, education and development. In addition, Kim holds a Diploma in Clothing Management from Wits Technikon which she acknowledges provided her with the fundamental basics to running and managing her own business.

As a well-respected industry figure, Kim is regarded as an inspirational business leader, professional in her conduct and extremely knowledgeable
within her field. As a highly motivated and determined individual with a philosophy of 'never giving up', Kim is truly living out her vision to drive 
positive socio-economic development contributing towards improving South Africa's standing on the world stage.