Valentine Nti Founding CEO, Charterquest ACT's CertITM tuition school in South Africa
Finance is the life-blood of any organisation, community or a nation for that matter! How you raise, protect, preserve and grow it sets benchmarks and monitors its deployment which will determine whether the organisation, community or nation's stakeholders will thrive or fail. Treasury brings it all together in a common sense, yet sophisticated and focussed manner that I find extremely purposeful and amazing!
Theory without practical application to the real world offers very limited purpose. To educate others, besides qualification, you have to have the passion to communicate and reduce very complex phenomena to simple 'pictures'.
Whenever a student walks up to me and says something like, “Whew! Thank you for making this so simple. I am now confident of passing and I can apply this at work,” the joy of teaching is unleashed and therein lies my most memorable experience!
Sandton, Soweto and Cape Town. Not counting Kempton Park which sort of holds Oliver Tambo Airport.
At pre-tertiary level - poor career orientation. At tertiary level, the ability to stay focussed on your studies in the face of so many distractions like alcohol, social media, mobile phones and funding challenges. At post tertiary level, balancing it with work, social, family and religious life. In South Africa in particular, I think a weak foundation at matric level in maths and sciences is posing a huge problem at advanced tertiary levels.
The multiplier effect of teaching. You educate one, you educate a nation! I love listening to students telling me things like, “Thank you very much, I passed! I gained a promotion! I got a better job!” All that benefits their immediate family and communities from where they come. I am an African, and the multiplier effect is far more enormous in terms of poverty reduction.
The Complete Sun Tzu for Business Success: Use the classic Rules of the Art of War to Win the Battle For Customers and Conquer the Competition by Gerald A. Michaelson and Steven Michaelson.
I am not called Valentine because I was borne on 14 February. I was born sometime in mid-November some distant nine months after that day in some year in the early 70's...
At pre-tertiary and at varsity, study to know and to pass exams. For all others, just study to pass exams, your professional body who sets that exam will ensure you can apply it at work. Generic advice for all: I can hardly see how you will thrive in future if you don't study and study hard. It’s very crowded at the bottom and highly competitive. Universities and colleges as well as professional bodies churn out millions of graduates and professionals each year. You can easily be lost in all that detail in a highly competitive world. So study hard, really hard and always find ways of differentiating your success by investing in your unique strengths as you go along.
Why and how I left my fatherland, Cameroon and embraced South Africa - my beloved home away from home!
To speak to someone about the Certificate in International Treasury Management (CertITM) and how to enrol, please call +44 (0) 20 7847 2540 or email education@treasurers.org