Frameworks driven by Harmoni

ESTER KAMATI

Born in Windhoek, Harmoni Beukes grew up in Rehoboth, where she attended Ruimte Primary School and thereafter M&K Gertze High School. Upon completing matric, Beukes saw it fit to take a gap year to put into perspective where she saw herself in future, while at this time working in retail as well at a local Pick n Pay store.

Her next move saw her at the University of Namibia, where she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in psychology. Thereafter, she started working as a teacher at Eldorado Secondary School in Windhoek.

Beukes is also a family woman has two beautiful daughters and a son. One of her main priorities is always being there for them and her husband, while also caring for her parents. She knows her way around the kitchen and enjoys exploring and trying out new recipes as well as baking up a storm.

“I generally like to try out new things and to learn new things, so much so that I ended up doing two skills courses, one in cake decoration and one in sewing.” Beukes is also appreciative of the universal language - music and loves finishing her work while listening to some sweet tunes.

Having joined NQA as a quality assurance officer in 2006, Beukes now fills the shoes of the manager of NQA’s National Qualifications Framework. This is a framework implemented in the same year Beukes joined the NQA, which ensures the registration of all legal, quality assured qualifications.

“Our work involves working with various stakeholders and key role players in the education and training sector across the entire education spectrum.”

These stakeholders include qualification developers, training providers, learners, parents and employers. This is also a section of the NQA which provides advice to potential students on the status of accreditation of providers locally and abroad before they enrol for studies.

“A highlight in my career thus far has been to be one of the implementers of the NQF, the establishment and development of the NQF of Namibia,” says Beukes. She adds that being able to explain the type of qualification that the NQA is looking at to other qualification recognition bodies beyond Namibia using the NQF criteria has been another highlight for her as this puts specifications in the Namibian context.

“You are in competition with no one, no need to worry yourself about another person’s achievements and don’t focus on others unless your focus is to help them.”

Beukes is driven to learn and understand new things, a characteristic which makes it easier for her to excel at her job. Another valuable characteristic that she has is humility, as she believes that “everyone has something to offer you just need to find out what it is”. She also likes to help people whenever she can. Her compassion allows her to empathise with her team, making it easier to smoothly deal with her team.

Upon arriving at the office every morning, Beukes begins her day with a cup of coffee in hand. After sharing greetings with her colleagues, she starts to attend to urgent emails as well as other key activities as prioritised on her daily to do list. “I create a to do list weekly to keep track of the activities that are due for finalisation for the week and update daily. Most of my days are quite short, as I have a full schedule on most days.”

With working from home now being a reality, Beukes has realised from personal experience that it helps to remain focused and have a routine. On a typical work day at home, Beukes sticks to the regular arrangement to wake up early as “the biological clock is set for waking up early”. She gets dressed as she would for work, but more comfortably and puts on her “war paint” in the form of lipstick, ready to take on the day and workload.

“This routine has really helped me stay focused on my work and put me in a productive mood. It is amazing how one’s looks can affect your mood. If you look undone you would feel unprepared.”

At the workstation that she has set up at home, she ensures that she works as she would in the office, completing all tasks on her to-do list, which helps her remain productive.