Due to our good contacts to Namibian companies, we have received feedback that the applications of young Namibians are often of low quality. Hence, we decided to host application workshops in several Namibian towns. The first took place on 15 February in Windhoek.

The first participant arrived already 30 minutes before its actual begin while we were still preparing. EduVentures, a project that actively provides environmental experiences for mainly disadvantaged Namibian youth, kindly provided us with a room and refreshments in the National Museum of Namibia. The workshop started finally with a small delay and 29 participants eventually appeared.

Flavia and Philipp thoroughly prepared the workshop willing to discuss how to write a good CV, a convincing a cover letter and how to prepare for an interview. The participants were invited to take part actively. Before actually explaining the structure of the CV, they were asked to collect their strengths and weaknesses. Afterwards, by being thrown in at the deep end the participants had to correct someone else’s CV, experiencing a wow effect after having explained the structure and details of a CV by Flavia and Philipp. The participants were further provided with a sample CV and guide about how to write a good CV. Ultimately, they had time to correct their own CV.

After a lunch break, the next part of an application was being explained: the cover letter. The Do’s and Don’t’s were collected together followed by an explanation of the importance of a cover letter and its structure with the help of a sample. Being prepared to write their own letter, they could choose a current vacancy clipped from the newspapers of the last days and write their own letter and were supported by the workshop leaders.

At that time, the workshop lasted already more than three and a half hours and everybody was tired. Nonetheless, the participants wanted to continue with the interview and learned what is important for its preparation.

All in all, it was a really successful workshop, both participants and workshop leaders had a lot of fun, motivated and learned from each other. We are looking forward to host the next workshop in Kuisebmund!