Kashe Mayavero

AT work

I worked as a virtual intern for B360 Education Partnerships from April 19th, 2021, to 16th July 2021 which was later extended for another 4 weeks as a necessity of the WIL program, Informatics department, NUST. As being new to the practical exposure, every hour worked gave me the experience I need and as well contributed significantly to my skills and knowledge. For this opportunity, I thank: B360 Education Partnerships for the internship and my two-line managers Markus Huebscher and Rita Becker I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to follow my career. The kindness to accept me and guide me through my internship with advice, feedback and tips despite your busy schedule.

The internship is centered with developing a database application which is beneficial for B360 to use for data storage, tracking, retrieval and reporting in order to replace the currently used excel files. We used a milestone-based work plan for day-to-day operations. There were some day-to-day tasks in the database creating phase from requirements gathering throughout deploying the application. Inter-departmental follow up of ongoing meeting calls, monitoring the projects status are most remarkable among the day-to-day tasks.

In addition to the internship, I have completed 3 short courses, office etiquette, ICT training and the career starter course to improve my soft skills and enhance on my knowledge as well. I had other intern co-workers with me  in the office. We worked collaboratively on the courses offered with the other interns. This taught us how to be great team players and contributed to a successfully build team at the end.

Cultural Exchange

I would like to thank my generous virtual host family for taking me in as their first virtual intern. They were the greatest hosts I could ever ask for. They made me feel like their real son. They opened their door and gave me a valuable opportunity to experience a virtual Switzerland life and culture. I enjoyed every zoom or whatsapp call and chat I had with them. I will always be grateful to them for making my virtual experience an amazing, unforgettable one.

Highlights and Lowlights

My biggest highlight will be the excursion to Swakopmund fully sponsored by the hosfamilies. This was more of a team building trip that allowed me to see the beauty of the coast side of Namibia. We stayed in a nice fansy house and did activties together for the whole weekend. It was super fun!!! On top of that,  another highlight will be implementing the database application which led to users giving me positive and constructive feedback. This phase further enhanced my technical, soft and management skills. The biggest challenge in the begining was internet connection. It was not stable making communication with management inactive. However, this did not stop us from executing our daily tasks. Apart from that, another challenge was I could not come to work for a week because of the covid outbreak in the office. My work was delayed, so the following week I had to do more on catching up which I managed to do.

My Future Plans

The internship impacted me greatly allowing me to easily integrate with international management, think and analyze critically as well as how to lead projects. My future plan is either to pursue a career as an Application analyst or a Database administrator. Lastly, I hope to work towards my Honours Degree.

Personal Message

In conclusion, this internship has been an excellent and rewarding experience. It was a great opportunity to improve my personal skills. The skills have boosted my professional skills to a higher and prepared me for future careers. Show sympathy in any capacity you can. A little bit goes far. At times is all you need to get pass the obstacles life tosses your direction.