My name is Nico, aka The First Pioneer, my family and I live in the State of Kuwait, Middle East where I have worked for the past 15 years. My wife is a teacher at an International Baccalaureate school, and our son is in the eighth grade at the same school.

Born in Walvisbay and raised in Windhoek, Namibia, I attended the TWR Hotel School (now part of the UJ) studying Food Service Management. In my final year, I became a Sodexo Southern Africa bursary student.

Sodexo gave me a job as the first Chef Manager of the Desert Express, Namibia. The position paved the way to working with the UK Sodexo team, where I met my wife and worked for several years. Later we returned to SA where I was appointed to Bakgatla Resort, Pilanesberg, as GM before returning to the UK with Sodexo, and then Kuwait.

In Kuwait, I was tasked to set up an HR department for a new catering company providing support services to the forces in Iraq. A challenging task with no one to ask for help and the internet was nothing close to what we have today. The company snowballed from only 45 employees to more than 14,000 in 2013, providing services in 26 different countries, and speaking more than 120 different languages. The owner refused to purchase software to help run HR more efficiently; we only had access to Excel. By the time I left the company, we had run a smooth excel-managed operation with an in-house version of online training reaching the global workforce. Controlling learning ensuring consistency and quality, and helping to improve the lives of the people who help make our company successful.

I now lead the Business Development team securing and managing UN and US Government projects, part of my responsibilities is training new team members.

For several years I have been working privately as a consultant developing new course material for tertiary level institutions in Kuwait and Europe. Moreover, I provide training, remedial support, and tutoring in Business, Economics, Art, Drama & Computer Science/IT.

For me, this course allows for the formalization of my years of work experience in training and teaching people. I feel it will provide me with the needed theoretical knowledge to back up my teaching philosophies, and improve my teaching skills enabling me to support the learning of my clients/students better, and pave the way for taking up full-time teaching in the tertiary sector.

All the best with your studies and I look forward to working with you.

Nico