Charmaine Smith has 15 years of experience teaching across various levels of educational structure. From Grade 000 to Grade 12; her experience in teaching at various levels enables her to understand the needs and demands at every level. Her experience in leading teams at these levels have exposed her not only to managing academic endeavours but also in managing teams to deliver educational excellence.
Subsequent to her formal teaching and education experience Charmaine has been involved for the last 15 years in developing projects into educational communities in various provinces in SA. Serving rural and peri-urban communities in all areas of educational upliftment and development have led her to consider aspects such as infrastructure development; holistic whole system development involving multiple stakeholders and community forums.
In doing this work Charmaine has worked extensively with corporate sponsors and donors; Government structures such as Department of Basic Education (National; Provincial and District levels); Departments of Social Development and Rural Infrastructure; Community forums; School Management teams; School Governing bodies; NGO’s; CBO’s; SETA’s; SAHISA; ISASA and other relevant bodies in the pursuit of shifting communities in education.
RELEVANT WORK EXPERIENCE
- Charmaine managed the implementation of an integrated teacher development programme in Engineering Graphics in Design; sponsored by the Dutch government and encompassing Provincial DBE in KZN; University of Salzburg; and Bentley Solutions.
- Community development project with P G Bison encompassing 25 schools in rural EC; with involvement in teacher skills development; management and leadership training; infrastructure development; technology integration; stakeholder management; and donor funding/budgets. District and union buy-in have ensured massive turnarounds in delivery of education as well as exponential increases in pass rates.
- National mentoring programme for principals for Umlambo Foundation; managing the connection and subsequent induction process of incumbent mentors
- Development of frameworks and relationships for educational impact with technology suite; for distance learning and content management. Framework includes the relationship management and facilitation of relevant stakeholder engagement; including other funders and donors.
- Developed teams and facilitated frameworks for trauma and psycho-social management in communities; utilising experts from psychological; social work and community practitioners.
- Training SMT and SGB teams for PFMA and budgeting processes within their School Improvement and Development Plans. Alignment of needs to Department of Education budget processes.
- Aligning school priorities with government policy; and the building of infrastructure with partners; and co-funders.
- Assisted with the coordination of an infrastructure project for schools in the EC with a service provider and funder in 2010/2011.
- Rolled out a schools transformation process with 5 ex Model C schools in 3 provinces; focused on achievement of maths results through the Infundo model of systems transformation
- Conducted a schools assessment process in Limpopo; with key areas of concern – systems readiness for change; and measuring the impact of social challenges and stakeholder capabilities in achieving better results
- Grahamstown systems transformation process including management of racial and social dynamics; and thereby enabling the system to achieve results – included work with a school; a partner Trust and an independent school as part of the systems change
- Facilitated processes on behalf of sponsors; clients in a consulting role
- Unemployed youth programme – placement of unemployed youth in schools; managed the process for stipend payment; and then applications for Funza Lushaka Bursaries for many of the young adults who will now study towards their B Degrees and PGCE
- Co-facilitated, with Gail Wrogemann, a 3 day process for team alignment and implementation by the Africa team for Citizenship to the new strategy for Barclays Africa.
- Organisational Evaluation for and of the Catholic Institute of Education; assessing possible areas of improvement for impact in the 300 schools CIE serves.
- Designing and running a Transformation Workshop for 280 staff members for a business unit within Standard Bank, focused on Inclusion; gender and diversity. Followed up by smaller group processes on happiness and knowing oneself – for teams around the country.
- Overseeing, and implementing the psycho-social component; and consulting in project processes; for an alternate energy group; running community development processes in areas where alternate energy is being rolled out. We support the learnership and enterprise development projects, by creating emotional support and integration for the participants in the projects. And a full wraparound community and education development programme. We also provide project strategy support for the project team(s).
RELEVANT LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE:
- Director Infundo Consulting (Pty) Ltd (2007 - )
- Chairperson READ Educational Trust (November 2017 - )
- Board member of Nation Builder (January 2018 - )
- Member of Mergon Allocations Board (2018 - )
- Trustee Muthobi Trust (2020 –)
- Non exec Director King Price Insurance (May 2019 - )
- Chair Risk Committee King Price (May 2019 - )
- Steering Committee LEAP 3 (2007-2010)
- Steering Committee Three2Six refugee school (2006-2007)
- Chairperson Refugee Ministries Centre (2010 -2013 )
- Trustee READ Educational Trust (November 2011 - 2017 )
- Board Member Reading Matters and African Reading Matters (August 2014 - 2019 )
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
- African Local Summit
Sustainable systemic change, using developmental frameworks, for the achievement of the Millenium Development Goals.
- JVR conference
Emotional Intelligence – a foundation for sustainable systems change in education, Jopie van Rooyen 2nd EQ Summit, March 2014. Co-presentation with Gail Wrogemann
- SA Basic Education Conference
Complex Systems Transformation For Sustainable Growth In Education, Basic Education Conference, April 2014. Co poster presentation with Gail Wrogemann
- Nation Builder "In Good Company" conference
“Where business has done well by doing good; and what this means for all”
An overview of Infundo’s EC community project which has successfully combined social impact with clear business impact outcomes.
- Nation Builder breakfast series
AWARDS/ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Finweek 2015 Women to Watch