Since its establishment the Wolwedans Foundation has educated more than 250 young Namibians in hospitality and culinary arts. This vocational training takes place at the Wolwedans Desert Academy, situated in the Greater Sossusvlei Namib area, and at our Namibian Institute of Culinary Education (NICE) academy in Windhoek. Both are accredited and supported by the Namibian Training Authority.
Wolwedans works closely with the Social Security Commission Development Fund (SSC-DF) to ensure our programs reach the people who need them most. The mandate of the SSC-DF is to assist socio-economically disadvantaged Namibians from marginalised communities and ensure quality education services are available in remote areas at a reasonable cost. We are proud of the crucial role that the Wolwedans Desert Academy plays in achieving this goal.
The curriculum at the Wolwedans Desert Academy is built around, what we call, the Living Classroom, combining theory lessons with hands-on practical training with mentoring from experienced industry facilitators. We also foster a caring educational environment at both our city-based NICE academy, and at the Desert Academy campus.
Namibian Institute of Culinary Education (nice) is a training school for chefs, which runs a training restaurant in the heart of Windhoek and has established itself as a popular destination of culinary excellence.
We commit to human resource development by giving education and training the highest priority. In supporting people to develop we grow their individual potential and strengthen their life skills. One of the Wolwedans Foundation’s aims it to provide training at no cost or have the trainee pay a very small contribution to the Foundation so that it – supported by external grants or grantors can cover the training costs. Ultimately, the cost of education shouldn’t be a barrier to education. Before, the Wolwedans Foundation managed to meet 1/3 of a trainees costs, however, this has proven to be more and more challenging and this portion of contribution can no longer be achieved. The Wolwedans Foundation invites donations for its ‘Adopt a Trainee’ initiative: foundation@wolwedans.org
