Joy Tanti credits her career success to her connection with the Work Experience and Mentorship Academy shortly after finishing her undergraduate studies in entrepreneurship at Moi University in Eldoret town. After graduating with honours in 2014, Joy signed up and paid for the WEMA mentorship programme, together with fourteen other graduates.
The organization's administrators ensured that the cohort was immersed and engaged in the daily operations of various businesses, government organisations, and private institutions so that by the time they finished the programme, the trainees would go out and combine what they learned in school and their work experience training by WEMA by diligently implementing the knowledge acquired into the job internship, businesses, and consultancies that they would be assisted in enrolling in afterwards.
When designing the course, the graduate and the employer were the two primary considerations. This was done intentionally to produce a workforce that is well-rounded and capable of adapting to the ever-changing demands of the modern workplace. The training lasted for 11 months. This included onboarding, one-on-one sessions with entrepreneurs, human resources training, graduation from the programme, and eventually job placement.
According to Joy, the programme was a soft landing into the world of employment since she learned the various aspects of professionalism, time management, money making, personal branding, communication, interpersonal skills, and employee rights, which were critical, practical, and complimentary to the theories learned in university. She fondly remembers one of the days they were taken to the secretariat responsible for the implementation of the Kenya Vision 2030.
“This was the best day ever for me and my colleagues because we felt like we were part of the decision-making process in the country. We also got to learn about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the UN. These lessons were the practical bits to the theories we learned about in school,” she said.
REVIEW WITH THE MENTOR
In order to stay on the right path and make career progress, Joy was assigned Njeri Maina Afanda as her mentor and hand holder. During their monthly review sessions, the two would discuss and track the progress that Joy was making in her personal and professional life. The mentor, whom she is still in touch with to date, would also advise her on improving her professional qualifications and aspirations in order to make significant progress.
Through WEMA, Joy landed her first paid internship with Wavuh Limited, an information technology company, after the training programme. She was responsible for customer service and office administration and was also a project lead. Here, she implemented all that she had learned from WEMA on project management and also gained more experience while on the job, which lasted for 8 months.
Soon afterward, Joy got handpicked into contractual employment as an information technology resource with Adrian Kenya. Two years later, her diligence was rewarded with a promotion to account management in international trade, a position she held for another four years at Adrian Kenya.
While working, she would still keep in touch with her assigned mentor as well as Esther Muchiri, the executive director at both WEMA Kenya and EMentoring Africa. Joy stated that Esther was quite instrumental in helping and linking her with contacts that would help Joy advance in her career. When Joy mentioned to her two mentors that she wanted to enrol for a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy from the Pan African Christian University, they weren’t surprised because they noticed that Joy was inquisitive and caring in nature and was keen on improving people’s lives from a point of view of family, spirituality, and mental health.
THE CAREER SHIFT
When she was about to clear her master’s programme, Joy informed her mentors that she wanted to be a full-time counsellor and therapist once she was through with the postgraduate certification. This gave birth to the establishment of her enterprise: Springwell Therapy and Counselling Centre. After six years of formal employment, it was time for her to shift into entrepreneurship. Her support team was cheering her on. Joy resigned from her job, went on to register the company, and hit the ground running in June 2023.
Why therapy and counselling? We asked, and Joy’s answer was more about doing what she loved doing, taking risks, and making a worthwhile contribution to society. Joy believes in family unity, hence her desire to participate in fostering that unity by getting to the root cause of broken families, which, in her words, is responsible for societal ills. And by being deliberate about getting more people to embrace therapy and counselling, she believes that there will be more positive transformations in the workplace and in the community in general.
Though her company is still in the startup stage, Joy has a bigger vision that she says she will keep implementing and embracing as the challenges come. She adds, “Life has different trajectories, and through our organisation, we will continue to help more people find and know themselves, bring healing to families, and help more people find the beauty of life!” Contact Joy Tanti for more information on marriage and family therapy.