President Faure awards 22 young Seychellois leaders |13 December 2019

The graduates in a souvenir photograph with President Faure and other guests (Photo: Joena Meme)

Twenty-two young Seychellois who have successfully completed their Masters Degrees in Leadership and Social Domain, under the Seychelles Youth Leaders Programme (SYLP), were yesterday recognised and awarded with their certificates by President Danny Faure, in a brief ceremony held at The Guy Morel Institute (TGMI).

The fifth cohort on the programme, comprising 21 young Seychellois females and one male participant, most of whom are from the education sector, successfully completed and graduated from the programme last year.

In her opening address, executive director of TGMI, Shella Mohideen, commended the young leaders on their hard work and dedication over the two-year period reminding them that leadership is about developing people and helping others to reach their full potentials.

“Leadership is more than just a position. It is about equipping others with the right tools and strategies not only to maximise the success of an organisation but also the lives of individuals. As I have always told you throughout your journey, leadership is not a destination but a journey,” she said.            

Following Mrs Mohideen’s address, President Faure joined Mrs Mohideen and vice-chancellor of the University of Seychelles (UniSey) in presenting the cohort with their certificates, before he interacted with the young graduates about the programme, their experiences and how they have been applying their newly acquired skills and knowledge in their respective work places since their return.

The SYLP was launched on January 18, 2008 by then President James Michel, and has to date produced over 130 graduates.

The overall aim of the two-year programme is to identify young Seychellois with the potential to become leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs of tomorrow and to equip them with knowledge, skills, attitude and mindset and experiences that will help to equip them to assume leadership positions in the Seychelles public and private sectors.

“In July 2013, the programme was given a new focus – the Social domain – to help deal with the different social ills in Seychelles. Accordingly, an appropriate leadership training programme was devised by UniSey and the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) to provide the requisite knowledge, skills, attitude and experiences to equip Seychellois potential young leaders to assist in learning, managing, driving and sustaining the government’s ongoing social renaissance programme,” Mrs Mohideen said in an interview with the media after the ceremony.

“It was decided that the country needs leaders with specialisation in dealing with issues in society redesigned modules to suit context to respond to what was happening in the country. If you want to design a good programme that is effective, you need to create the capacity. This cohort, the majority of them have been taken from schools and if you take school leaders, they work directly with children and as such is a good starting point. While we might not see a difference right away, at least we are starting where we should start, empowering the youths who will then grow up to be a healthier generation,” Mrs Mohideen added.

The programme comprises two different components including an international component offered by the University of Ireland but which is delivered by the IPA. Additional to that, local components include the leadership journey, corporate governance, local placements an well as overseas placements in Indonesia and Malaysia whereby they studied drug rehabilitation methods and practices, women empowerment and rehabilitation of teenage offenders.

Modules on offer on the programme include social policy and administration, organisation and strategy in the social domain, leadership and strategy in the social domain, finance and the social domain, research method in the social domain, crime and safety and work-life balance & business (French).

Despite the successes of the programme which has produced over 100 graduates over the years, the programme will be on hold for the moment while an assessment is carried out to determine whether the desired outcomes are being achieved.

“We have already 130 graduates now so it was held that it is time for us now to assess the programme and its impacts and whether it is producing the desired impact. The assessment will determine the way forward and I believe an assessment at this time is critical,” Mrs Mohideen concluded.

Foreign Affairs protocol officer Rodney Sinon, the only male graduate on the programme, noted that the programme has been extremely useful to him and one in which he learned a great deal, which can be applied to his job and daily life.

“I am someone who has overcome a lot of difficulties through the help of others so I am ready to help others overcome their own problems. I always wanted to broaden my knowledge and skills that I have in leadership which is what pushed me to join the cohort. We learned about research methodologies and most importantly about social policies which I think will be extremely useful especially given the social ills that our society is faced with. The course has helped to equip us to better handle such situations and understand them,” Mr Sinon shared.

Laura Pillay