Uzile Skenjana

• Coordinates and responsible for Academic and non-academic International Exchange programs for Students, Scholars, Professors, Professionals such Fulbright Scholarships, Fortune500 for Women In Development, Tech Women, International Visitors Leadership Program.
• Manages and engages stakeholder relationships with think tanks, government entities such as DHET, DBE, THENSA, and worked closely with Higher Education Institutes.
• Relationship management with implementing partners for capacity strengthening programs and exchange programs.
• National coordinator for provincial Consulates in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban to ensure seamless organization of recruitment, coordination
• Maintains strict adherence to industry regulations, minimizing risk exposure for the organization with policy rules and regulations of exchange programs.
• Coordinates high level events and engagements through the Contact Relationship Management system. Serving as an interface between influential individuals and institutions such as think tanks, labor unions, professional associations, civil society organizations, prominent academics, and professional training institutions.
• Responsible for designing and recommending Public Diplomacy strategies to connect with public and private sector audiences to build and sustain productive dialogue and promote mutual understanding. Plan, develop, coordinates, oversees, and evaluates projects and initiatives to engage subject matter experts.
• Designs and oversees programs and projects tailored to subject matter experts audience segments to engage SME's, individuals, their institutions, and their networks on critical issues such as security, countering transnational threats, economic growth, human rights, governance, countering extremism, and ESTH (environment, science, technology, and health).
• Develops and cultivates substantive relationships with influential South African experts and institutions to sustain Consulate engagement and expand opportunities for collaboration.
• Identiies objectives, outcomes, and evaluation or assessment methods appropriate for engagement projects and initiatives, ensuring that goals for program activities are consistent and complementary. Evaluates previous activities for impact and cost effectiveness as the basis for enhanced performance.
• Manages budgeting and funding resources. Manage grant reviews and proposals, serve on technical reviews committees,
• Ensures compliance with national and local laws through regular policy reviews and updates.
• Provide ongoing support to clients throughout their journey, fostering long-lasting partnerships built on trust and mutual understanding.
• Facilitate social media practices to publicize alumni engagement and highlights, milestones, success stories, culture and support engagement projects.

Partnered with HR in succession planning identifying key candidates for promotion or lateral moves within the organization based on their strengths and developmental needs.

• Blended skill sets in achieving organizational objectives, goals, and values with learning development initiatives to deliver high-quality training to employees.
• Led high-quality workshops, team retreats and senior management offsite and hybrid tutorials. Delivers relevant content for capacity strengthening courses focused on leadership development, addressing team dynamics, professional etiquette and customer-centric principles.
• Skilled facilitator and public engagement speaker that curate’s informative programs to bridge knowledge gaps for technical and support offices.
• Measured quality and effectiveness of training programs using established methods such as Psychometric tools, Kirk Patrick model for M& E purposes.
• Defined HR training and development objectives to help teams deliver consistent training across the mission and regional client missions.
• Developed complete training programs and led training using expert learning techniques suitable for hybrid learning. Training of Implementing partners of USAID.
• Supervised a team of administrative assistants to equip them with soft skill sets focusing on customer-centric, effectiveness professional etiquette.
• Designed and facilitated the Administrative and Secretarial Workshop training for administrative staff.
• Extensive experience in team coaching, addressing team dynamics. A successful track record in engaging staff members to improve morale and organizational effectiveness.
• Promoted culture of Continued Professional Development (CPD) through Executive Coaching Program and Peer and direct mentoring for impact.
• Course development and curation with frameworks and modified content and delivery based on building effective teams, fostering leadership skills that amplify self-awareness.
• Course development and curation with frameworks modified content and delivery based on building effective teams, Franklin Covey elements.
• Preparation of SOW's (Statement of Works), Solicitations, budget reports, templates, SOP's, engaging of stakeholders, implementing partners and government officials.
• Liaise with Country Representatives from Regional Missions in Southern Africa to support, conduct and facilitate professional development frameworks and analysis of training needs.
• Worked with the Overseas Management Division in Washington DC for 3 months to develop and establish structured programs for incoming Executive Officers and Officers who are new to foreign service.
• Technical writer and editor for organizational engagements, report writing and the Executive Office newsletters, and memorandum agreement preparations.
• Spearheaded the creation of a mentorship program, matching experienced employees with newer hires for accelerated skills transfer.
• Created detailed reports outlining the impacts of learning initiatives on overall business performance showcasing tangible results from L&D efforts.
• Managed departmental budgets efficiently allocating funds towards impactful resources that supported strategic goals.
• Evaluated training program effectiveness, adjusting content as needed to maximize learning outcomes.

• Enhanced team collaboration through regular meetings, fostering a positive work environment for increased productivity.
• Liaised between departments to facilitate communication and keep appropriate parties updated on project developments.
• Prepared presentations in preparation for Labour Law seminar, Performance Management – learning and understanding the details of the project scope, progress and results and assisting on administrative tasks
• Assist with travel planning and scheduling for the MCG cluster for purposes of travel support and administrative support.
• Performed billing, bookkeeping and other project management administrative tasks to help keep projects on schedule and within budget.
• Contributed to provision of documentation for new projects and initiatives to communicate project requirements to team members.
• Organized invoices, filing of contracts and other financial reports for easy access for departmental staff.
• Delegated to spearhead the organizations Labour Law seminar as the program director for the annual seminar.
• Maintained project-level risk and issue logs, monitoring, controlling and escalating items to team leads and management for interventions.
• Drew up project management calendar detailing timelines for fulfilling different project goals.
• Used online management tools to monitor goals for streamlined management of projects.
• Work closely with SALGA branches and performing tasks to assist municipalities and ward councillors in attendance of conferences/seminars.
• Coordinated cross-functional teams to achieve seamless collaboration in achieving project objectives.
• Played an active role in brainstorming sessions held for the purpose of generating innovative ideas/solutions which could potentially be incorporated into existing/new projects being undertaken by the company.