Black women should play a bigger management and decision-making role in the medical aid industry.
This is the view of Dr Lenny Modisane, principal officer of Johannesburg-based Resolution Health Medical Scheme, who says black women are under-represented in leadership roles in all spheres of the industry.
"When you consider how many black women are working today and how important a role they play in the nurturing of families health and well-being, they really need to be more meaningfully represented in our important industry," he says.
Resolution Health Medical Scheme, which has more than 46,000 principal members and over 110,000 beneficiaries, is placing particular emphasis on black women in its skills development and training initiatives.
These initiatives range from a general skills development programme, focusing on "soft" skills, to a team leaders programme and programmes for assistant managers and managers.
In the general skills development programme, participants are trained in areas such as personal finance, business English, emotional intelligence and telephone etiquette. The more advanced courses deal with weightier issues and instil skills that enable black women - and other male and female participants to develop leadership qualities and abilities.
"While we select people to go on the team leaders programme, we also have volunteers who want to improve their skills and their career and earnings prospects," explains Modisane.
Transfer of skills is an important aspect of this leadership development training - it teaches people be able to make practical use of their newfound knowledge, to make decisions and generally play more meaningful roles that will benefit themselves, their families, their colleagues, the medical scheme and scheme members.
"Skills development and training - not only amongst black women, but across all races and genders - is an essential ingredient for the ongoing well-being of our company and of our country," says Modisane.