Esolda Cilliers from Willow Creek Products has been selected as the recipient of the SA Olive Mentorship Award for 2015. This announcement was made at the annual SA Olive Awards ceremony which took place on Thursday, 3 September.
SA Olive established their mentorship programme in 2008 with the aim of nurturing a new generation of olive oil growers and makers. It is an industry sponsored programme made possible by national and local government grants. The participants in the programme are workers employed by SA Olive member producers.
The other finalists in this year’s competition were Javin Beukes (Mount Ceder), Piet Visser (Olyfberg), Vivian Otto (Olyvenbosch), Joslyn von Williegh (Goedgedacht) and Eunice Thandiswa (Cape Olive).
As an extension to the annual Mentorship Award, SA Olive partnered with Linda Costa from Olives in Fact this year to present a sponsored Olive Oil Tasting and Appreciation course. Avril Davids (Tokara) was nominated as the taster with the most promising palate.
The mentorship programme has made an indelible impact on the lives of over 200 participants, their families and rural communities. This year 113 participants were registered, many of whom have been with the programme since its inception and in turn have become mentors, sharing their acquired knowledge and skills with new programme apprentices.
Determining the winner proved very difficult for the judging panel, as all the finalists have shown tremendous personal development over the course of their involvement in the programme. In their interviews, all the finalists emphasised the fact that the programme equipped them with the necessary self-belief and skills to further their careers in the olive oil industry. The winner, Esolda, is a prime example – after failing matric this working mother overcame great personal adversity to become a logistics manager, and she now believes that the sky is the limit in her career.
- Absa Top 10 Results - October 2, 2017
- SA Olive Awards 2017 Results - August 31, 2017
- Absa Top 5 Olive Oils Announced - September 28, 2016