Lois: Why diverse skills are crucial 

The phrase: ‘hard work forever pays’ is often heard attributed to success stories to encourage those looking up to their respective role models to stay the path and Ms Lois-Singa Metili, Dean of Students and Head of Department, Marketing and Entrepreneurship at Tumaini University Dar es salaam College (TUDARCo), believes she has embodied that phrase.

“Over the years, I have trained myself to work both hard and smart because while hard work is essential to attain success, working smart enables one to achieve more with less,” she says.

Lois has established herself as a competent rapporteur in Tanzania as she has worked with various organisations such as Tanzania Oil and Gas Conference, Tanzania Education Network, Tanzania Midwives Association, Tanzania Christian Medical Association, Biennial Conference of the Pan African Congress of Radiology and Imaging and the Tanzania Health Summit.

She has provided German-Swahili translation services for Plan International, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania and other individuals in voice overs, speaking and writing. She has also translated English-Swahili for many other organisations, both locally and international.

As a rapporteur, Lois shares that the main challenge she has encountered through the course of her career was having to learn as much information as she could about a subject only moments before beginning the work. This wasn’t a line of work that she initially knew to be a possibility.

She went on to reveal: “In order to succeed in a rapporteuring career, I decided to dedicate ample time to watching YouTube videos and tutorials, reading sample reports, listening to criticism and guidance from my clients, and seek for the advice of well experienced individuals. Eventually, I began to acquire the needed skills and continued to perfect it over a span of eight years.”

Not one to shy away from challenges, Lois quickly learned the requirements needed to be a successful rapporteur and completed her pursuit with certification and diploma courses.

However, climbing up the ladder to success hasn’t been without its obstacles. Lois attests that she has faced plenty of these obstacles with each position she held.

The biggest of these was the ones that came through the position of Director of Institute for Continuing and Professional Education, where she had to establish the said institute, formulate a team and together come up with systems of running the institute.

“The good thing is that each problem has a solution and there are multiple ways to find such solutions,” Lois shared.

She continues: “Friends, family, tools like social media platforms, books, and articles all play a significant role in facilitating for a solution.”

“It’s so important to note that failure is part of the process. It shouldn’t deter someone from moving forward, it should rather act as fuel to do better and keep moving,” she added.

Lois is a certified trainer from the Joseph Business School in Illinois and Regent University in Virginia Beach, both in the United States of America. She is also, an independent trainer in areas of entrepreneurship, marketing, communication and life skills.

Learning to mould students

As an experienced lecturer of over seventeen years in various institutions, she also faced stumbles as she began the journey at very tender age. She started off as a lecturer at the age of 24, being agemates with her students and at times even younger than them.

“In the beginning, it was hard for students to take me seriously, as majority of them were way older than me,” she said.

“Over time, I overcame this a challenge by focusing on the content and teaching methodology that has always been participatory, and capitalised on the knowledge of my students to enrich my class,” she explained.

Lois also added that currently, the main challenge is dealing with students, majority of whom are very young, and need close supervision, especially in non-degree programs (certificate and diploma).

“Most of these students join university directly from a strict secondary school environment, and come to an environment where they are free and treated as adults which presents a bit of a challenge in dealing with them,” she said.

“Some don’t attend class, miss out on assignments and are late for tests and exams,” she added.

In dealing with that, she has individual and group counselling sessions with students on how best for them to prioritise on their studies and the best way of studying for maximum results.

Lois has also made some passionate moves on passing on life skills and entrepreneurial knowledge to youth in Tanzania. For the last eight years she has worked with thousands of youths all across the country to train and mentor young entrepreneurs.

She shares that the main challenge in training the youth has been securing funds for venues, refreshments and materials for trainees.

“Participants in some instances have worked on their own to raise funds for venue and materials and then, asked me to volunteer passing on the knowledge, to which I happily obliged,” she reveals.

She went on to say various schools and parishes have welcomed her to train their students and parishioners on starting different business ventures and running.

“I wish every trainer, parent, and adult, consciously takes the youth under their wings and cheers them on to success,” she added.

The Author of ‘Kijana na Kusudi’ which was also translated to ‘Purpose Driven Youth’, Lois went on to give advice to young girls and women on tips to success explaining that girls are fortunate in this time and era and there are so many opportunities for them to tap into.

“They need to have a positive attitude, invest heavily in learning the tools of trade and have an inquisitive mind-set to keep searching for opportunities best tailored for their skills and passion,” she said.

She said, venturing into unknown territory might be scary, but they should not shy away from such opportunities.

“Again, it’s important for girls to understand that when people or organisations provide you with an opportunity, then they should aspire to make the most of it and add value to what is expected of them,” she said.

“In other words, they should not just meet the expectations, but exceed them. That way, they will be paving a way for themselves to get better and higher positions,” she explained.

The world is changing rapidly. In addition to education acquired from schools and universities, it’s important to note the changes, learn the new skills needed, unlearn the old and relearn once changes take place.