Before joining the property sector in Zimbabwe, Sandy Walsh had 14 years marketing, public relations and training experience. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, she was the top agent with Pam Golding Properties in Harare and in 2001 became a co-franchisee of the PGPZim franchise, of which she was the principal. Her team, it is said, were the leading agents in Harare for several years.
In 2004, Walsh relocated to the Cape and in 2006 rejoined PGP as the sales manager for Pam Golding Vacation in Properties, marketing fractional ownership. In early 2008 she was appointed PGP’s training manager in the Western Cape. Here she gained valuable experience in implementing the RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) training for the FETC 59097 NQF4 Real Estate as well as full intern agent training, the professional qualification for estate agents throughout South Africa.
In her new position, Walsh will work closely with the Institute of Estate Agents’ national body. One of her challenges will be to re-introduce effective skills development training to all Western Cape IEASA members on an ongoing basis.
At the same time, she says, her main focus will continue to be on intern agent training, i.e. the training of estate agents in their first year. This, along with skills training, will involve holding at least one four hour course per day at the Institute’s Pinelands Head office for their Peninsula and Northern Suburbs areas and, later, at their outlying Boland, Overberg, Saldanha and Helderberg areas.
“Our goal is to train 150 learners per month offering a range of training modules, from intern training to selling skills and specialist training such as Sectional Title, Tax and Legislation. No matter how much experience an agent has acquired and how much training they have done, things change and there is always room for more.
“A good agent will accept the need to train but an exceptional agent will subscribe to life-long learning.”
Walsh adds that there is already a marked upswing in the reputation and image of estate agents and this, she says, is largely attributable to the realisation that all agents have to achieve the NQF qualification, forming the basis of a recognised profession.
“We are entering an era in which the agent will be a well-trained professional, with recognised qualifications, a commitment to annual continuous professional development (CPD’s) and operating on a par with many other professionals. I expect the Western Cape Institute to take a lead in this process and to become the training provider of choice to its members.”
For more information contact Sandy Walsh on 021 531 3180 or send an email.
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