“If in doubt just do it! You will find a way to make the time.”
Porsha De Cleene is a doer. Growing up in Palmy North, she “did” Girls’ Brigade every week, “did” dancing and piano, “did” study (IT and Business) then “did” a series of office jobs before she got out of the office and into a Streetwise Coffee cart. Now she is a first time Mum, juggling a 15-month-old, a husband and part time work. It’s fair to say Porsha is always busy.
Given the opportunity to spend some of her working week at Streetwise Coffee head office in Otaki, Porsha knew she could use some management training (it had been a while since she had studied) as she moved into a management role with the coffee cart business. She chose our New Zealand Certificate in Business First Line Management course (Level 4) to “perk up” her management skills.
She found she could take the bits that she needed from the course and put them into practice in a way she had never been able to do with the broad business and management theories she had studied at Massey. Porsha credits the FLM4 course for opening her eyes to the importance of sharing the reasons she wanted to make change with affected staff. This success has encouraged her to take more risks in her management.
Given her circumstances were going to change when Madie arrived, Porsha needed a flexible course. The Moodle lessons were detailed enough for her to teach herself and race ahead in the course in the time before her daughter was born, and then comprehensive enough to catch up again when she could return to her study.
Porsha loved the fact that her facilitator Kari was cool with her bringing her baby to class. Kari’s regular emails checking in and commitment to getting all her learners over the line helped Porsha to get through the course when the reality of motherhood smashed in.
Porsha has moved on, as she no longer wanted to do the travel required for the role, but Streetwise Coffee has continued to send its trainee managers through this course. Porsha too, is still benefiting from what she learned. In her new role in a small photography business, her study of business planning, not so relevant at Streetwise Coffee, helped her confidently re-enter the workforce and immediately contribute to her new employer’s big picture strategy.