Modiegi Kgokane  Director: Business Development

Modiegi is an experienced ETDP practitioner and manager with excellent training, materials development and interpersonal skills. Responsible for sales and business development at VeryCoolIdeas, she is highly articulate, confident and persuasive as a team builder. Modiegi motivates and communicates effectively and works well independently, with a high level of personal integrity and professionalism. Possessing over 15 years experience in the Education Training and Development environment, Modiegi's background spans teaching, facilitation, materials development and management in the government, NGO and corporate sectors.

Modiegi's first love and passion is teaching. In pursuit of this, Modiegi's working career began when she took up a lecturing post at Vista University, teaching Economics to first year students. In 1994, Modiegi was offered a one year post at Spectrum Girls High teaching grade 10, 11 and 12 learners Economic and Business Economics. Her interactive and dynamic approach to teaching produced many 'A's' and 'B's' amongst her learners, which she regards as an exceptional achievement and a career highlight.

In 1995, Vista University approached and reappointed Modiegi as a lecturer for the African Languages Department (for the first, second and third year students). This role provided Modiegi with the freedom and scope to explore and put into practice her unique approach to teaching which assisted in producing the best results from her students.

In 2001, having started the process of carving out her niche gained from hands-on experience and six years at Vista University, Modiegi decided to 'go it alone' and started to freelance and consult for a variety of organisations. Modiegi considers working independently as the primary catalyst for the growth of her career. This enabled Modiegi to chart her own course and she found herself getting more involved in developing, managing and administering course material.

Never missing an opportunity to make a difference, Modiegi took up a position as an Assistant Director for Statistics SA in 2002. This role provided Modiegi with the opportunity to work as part of a team conceptualising and implementing statistic literacy programmes, developing curriculum and training materials as well as evaluating and assessing the programmes and trainers. This is where Modiegi initially came into contact with Cool Ideas, as it was known then.

In 2004, Modiegi joined the NGO known as The Molteno Project as a Manager for research and development. This project focused primarily on addressing the gaps in teacher training in language and literacy in various African countries. The main goal of the organisation was to ensure that teachers were provided the necessary skills to first teach the home language to learners and then bridge the literacy gap to teach English. Using her knowledge and experience in African languages, Modiegi helped train the trainers and assisted in developing training materials in more than 40 African languages. The programme was extremely successful, resulting in Ghana adopting the programme as part of its primary school curriculum.

Modiegi made her debut into the corporate environment in 2006, when she joined PG Bison as Group Training Manager. Modiegi was responsible for all aspects relating to training throughout the organisation, including aligning the training strategy to the overall business strategy. It was during her tenure at PG Bison (and upon competing her Assessor Training with VeryCoolIdeas) that Modiegi became an active promoter of the VeryCoolIdeas skills development, training and assessment programmes.

In 2008, Modiegi joined ABSA's Personal Loan team as the Learning and Development Client Manager. One of her core functions was to manage, develop and implement training strategies and programmes relating to personal loans. Modiegi was also the Skills Development Facilitator for the entire business unit.

April 2009 marked an auspicious occasion as Modiegi joined VeryCoolIdeas as a vested business partner, being appointed Director of Business Development. Modiegi credits VeryCoolIdeas as a company which has had a profound influence on her life. Her portfolio includes sales and marketing, promoting and positioning the company, generating sales and maintaining client relationships. In addition Modiegi will develop and implement a Corporate Social Responsibility programme for VeryCoolIdeas.

Modiegi is an academic who believes in continued development through learning and training. Modiegi possesses a BA Education, BA Honours African Languages and BA Honours Economics degrees from Vista University. Modiegi also graduated from Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) with a Masters Diploma in Human Resources Management and has also successfully completed a number of courses relating to education, training and development including her Certificate in Occupationally-Directed Education, Training and Development Practice.

Modiegi is considered an energetic, vibrant and dynamic business woman whose core strength is her passion to engender success in others.