It was close – COVID-19 nearly sank Mentornet. At one stage I even tried to sell the company for whatever I could get. Fortunately, nobody was interested. At least I received some positive and encouraging emails from loyal friends of Mentornet.

Evette was adamant from the word go – she would revive what she calls her baby. And her tenacity and perseverance did the trick. Roald sacrificed his position as MD of Mentornet and accepted an appointment as a computer programmer for a larger company, thereby saving Mentornet his salary. He still manages and maintains the Mentornet online system in his free time, though.

All the important business graphs are developing in the right direction – turnover, committed invoices, payments by clients, online learning enrolments and contact learning enrolments are on the way up.

Granted, the improvements are from a rather low base. We are now facing a new reality and, therefore, we are also measuring progress and growth as if from scratch. Developments are measured with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic as the starting point.

The following are some decisions that we took that might be of interest to you:

1. Evette is now the MD. In her capacity as MD she will structure and manage the Mentornet premises in such a way that contact learning students will enjoy maximum protection against COVID-19.
2. I will still be the CEO of Mentornet and will do pretty much what I did for the last twenty years. In addition to this I will path the way in articulating our strategy to the “new reality”.
3. Riétte will do administration and marketing.
4. Onika will continue with her responsibilities as in the past (office admin, OHS, facilitation, assessment, moderation).
5. Ashlea will still be the receptionist.
6. We will still use part-time facilitators, assessors and moderators.

Our focus in the future will be the following:

1. Providing contact and online learning of the short courses and qualifications for which Mentornet is accredited.
2. Development and offering of non-accredited courses to cater for specific management and economic needs, for example courses in research methodology, entrepreneurship, etc.
3. Aiding other private learning institutions with course administration, quality assurance, training materials, facilitation, assessment, moderation, verification, etc.
4. We will market the training, services and learning materials that Mentornet offer world-wide.

Thank you for your wonderful support the past 20 years. All the best for 2021 and all the years to follow.

Dr. Hannes Nel, CEO and Owner of Metornet (Pty) Ltd