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04 March 2021 | Story Leonie Bolleurs
Organisational Development and Employee Well-being in the Department of Human Resources at the University of the Free State will again present the successful ‘I Am’ employee wellness short-learning programme.

The programme is also supported by well-known South Africans, including Miss South Africa and Miss World 2014, Rolene Strauss, and the survivor and motivational speaker, Alison Botha. It has been developed to help improve the well-being of employees in all seven areas of wellness (physical, psychological, spiritual, environmental, emotional, social, and financial).  

You have control over your wellness

Strauss says it is important to look after your mental wellness in order to maintain balance and productivity at home and at work. According to her, employees who are thriving, happy and productive, set the table for a thriving organisation. 

Botha, who survived a horrendous crime in 1994, says we cannot always control what happens to us, but we always get to choose how to respond in these circumstances. The lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic is a good example; we cannot control the lockdown, but we can control our wellness during the lockdown. She recommends the ‘I Am’ employee wellness short-learning programme. “By choosing to take part in the programme, you can show yourself how much you value and care for yourself and for your wellness,” she says.

Carmine Nieman, industrial psychologist and counsellor from Organisational Development and Employee Well-being, says that, through various activities and methods, they aim to empower employees to increase their own personal and work-related well-being. She believes that this programme will further encourage employees to reach their full potential in both their work and personal lives.  
 
The central theme of this short-learning programme is: ‘I am … a great person with great potential’.  

Practical programme will motivate and inspire

According to Nieman, this is a registered eight-week short-learning programme that will require about two hours per week to complete one unit. “This programme will motivate and inspire employees to improve their well-being by participating in weekly sessions consisting of various activities developed to facilitate an improved understanding of well-being and to build skills in well-being.”

Completion of this registered programme will empower employees to not just increase their well-being in the present but will also equip them to increase their well-being in the future. – Carmine Nieman

This practical programme (where you complete certain activities to learn skills in well-being, e.g. coping, anger management, dealing with depression, dealing with anxiety, identifying strengths, self-care techniques, sleeping techniques, and EQ) will be presented online and will take approximately two hours of your time per week. The programme is very flexible, with no specific scheduled contact sessions, allowing you to complete it in your own time and space.

“Completion of this registered programme will empower employees to not just increase their well-being in the present but will also equip them to increase their well-being in the future,” she says. 

It is presented free of charge for employees of the UFS. 

Persons who are not UFS employees and who are interested in doing the programme, are also welcome. Although the programme opened for registration today (3 March 2021) and will start on 5 April 2021, companies from outside the university are welcome to negotiate their own specific dates that will suit the needs of their teams. Please contact Nieman to enquire about the cost. 

As it is a registered short-learning programme, all employees (both UFS and external employees) who participate in the programme will receive a certificate as well as credits upon completion of the course. 

For more information, please email: IAmWellnesssLP@ufs.ac.za You are also welcome to direct questions to Nieman on niemancl@ufs.ac.za 

See also graphic for more information.



News Archive

UFS Odeion School of Music (OSM) launched
2011-09-15

The University of the Free State’s (UFS) Odeion School of Music will be launched at the first Dean’s Concert in the Odeion on the Bloemfontein Campus on Friday, 16 September 2011.

The former Department of Music, in the Faculty of Humanities, has been transformed and will henceforth be known as the Odeion School of Music (OSM). This follows in the path of the corporate transition currently taking place at the university, which aims to reflect the progressive and dynamic striving towards excellence, as endorsed by the UFS Vice-Chancellor and Rector, Prof. Jonathan Jansen, and his management group.
 
Two years ago the faculty formulated a new mission with the aim to become an international faculty of excellence. An important component of it has been to create a pro-active marketing strategy and policy towards internationalisation and curriculum development.
 
The name Odeion School of Music portrays not only an excellent asset in the Free State, but also nationally and internationally. The school’s new name bears the respected Odeion brand and a number of successful and respected ensembles operate under this brand. These include the acclaimed residential Odeion String Quartet, as well as the Music Department’s student ensembles, the Junior Odeion String Quartet, the Odeion Sinfonia, and the Odeion Choir.
 
According to Prof. Nicol Viljoen, the Chairperson of the OSM, the name change was motivated by the following objectives:
  • The idea of a school within the Faculty of Humanities not only reflects an academic profile that does justice to the intention of the Department to reposition itself, but also simulates the current identity of the unit. This encompasses diverse thematic entities not only from an academic perspective, but also from a community and cultural perspective. The unit does this through providing services, which include arts entertainment, the provision of facilities, as well as a strong emphasis on community development.
  • With regard to an international perspective, it provides attractive possibilities not only from the perspective of a marketing and publicity profile, but also with regard to the identity of the unit.  
  • Hypothetically the new name allows more flexibility to complement the profile with reference to newly anticipated developments. These include the application of prestigious international experts as artistic fellows, membership to progressive European, jointly developed degree programmes and curriculum development initiatives, the founding of a chair in Orchestra Conducting, a master’s degree in Arts Management, as well as the incorporation of bio-kinetics in the teaching methodologies of performance practice, to name but a few.
  • From a management perspective it could also consolidate the perspective of scarce skill specialisation.
  • To give momentum to the establishment of the OSM, Mr Marius Coetzee was appointed as Innovation Manager. He is a former Project Manager of the European Degree in International Music Management – a joint degree initiative between three Universities from Norway, the Netherlands and Finland, funded by the EU in Brussels. His aim will be to develop and investigate aspects such as internationalisation, marketing, pro-active recruitment strategies, curriculum development and innovative teaching methodologies.
Mr Coetzee said music conservatories, from both European and American perspectives are managed and maintained as highly successful and substantial brands. From the European perspective some examples include the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki (Finland), the Liszt Academy in Budapest (Hungary), the Grieg Academy in Bergen (Norway) and the former Sweelinck Academy in Amsterdam (Netherlands). Similar to the South African milieu, the majority of music conservatories in the USA and Canada are resident within an academic university.
However, unlike the South African reality, the majority of these institutions have a value-added identity portrayed by a specific name. Such an example is the renowned Peabody Conservatory of the University of Baltimore or the Jacobs School of Music at the Indiana University Bloomington, to name but a few.
 
The Dean’s Concert will highlight performances of students in the school. The concert will probably become a regular event in future Spring Music Festivals.


Media Release
15 September 2011
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za
 

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