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On the occasion of Women’s Day it is incumbent on this columnist to find the most formidable woman possible and take her to lunch in order to bolster female spirits and pride, without completely decimating the confidence of us lesser-accomplished beings.
It is a precarious balance to strike because, in the case of Dr Linda Meyer, you could quite easily trigger a national underperformance crisis in everyone who proceeds with the reading of this column, were it not for the fact that she is so utterly modest about it all.
At Modern Tailors, her favourite Indian restaurant in Rosebank, where I focus my energies on the important business of ordering naan (never skip the naan), I promptly abandon any attempt to memorise her impressive LinkedIn profile and instead begin mentally plotting a political campaign to install her at the head of the department of basic education.
Linda oversees 65,000 students as MD of IIE Rosebank College, Waterfall School of Business and Capsicum Culinary Studio in ADvTECH’s Independent Institute of Education. She is also president of Rosebank International University College in Accra, Ghana, and is helping drive the group’s expansion in Africa.
“I want a campus in every African city,” she says with the air of someone mentioning a light home-improvement project.
Her career began a long way from the executive suite. Growing up in Edenvale, she left school in 1990 and became a flight attendant at SAA, where she joined the trade union and eventually became general secretary of its branch.
“I was very fortunate. I was assigned the education portfolio and that’s how my life started in education.”
From there she became a full-time trade unionist, a CCMA commissioner, later heading education and training at the commission, before moving through senior leadership roles in justice, higher education and institutional governance.
The titles have changed. The mission has not.
Whether serving on bodies such as the SA Qualifications Authority or leading some of the country’s largest higher education institutions, Linda has spent her career asking how systems can become fairer, stronger and more accessible.
She is particularly forthright on education.
“We need to get the fundamentals right,” she says. “Ensure students can actually get to school. Give them uniforms. Make sure they have learning material. Ensure the money goes to the right place and not off to tender entrepreneurs.”
Her greatest concern in higher education is capacity.
“We have around 630,000 matriculants who qualify for tertiary studies but the government has only about 230,000 first-year spaces available. You can’t create expectations for people and then have nowhere for them to go.”
More importantly, she says, it must lead somewhere.
“We educate for employment. You come to us to become a teacher, a lawyer, to work in ICT, logistics or supply chain. We make sure our graduates have the skills either to start their own businesses or to add real value.”
Every second article I read seems to suggest our children are studying for jobs destined to disappear into algorithms. She is considerably calmer.
“We can’t walk away from AI,” she says. “The issue isn’t whether students use AI. It’s whether they know how to interrogate information, think critically and demonstrate that they understand it.”
Her institution has already adapted. Assessment now relies more heavily on presentations, projects and high-stakes examinations.
More importantly, she believes universities must educate beyond the work machines will inevitably absorb.
“We’re preparing for the second rung. Not for generic entry-level jobs that can easily be automated. We want graduates with the thinking ability and cognitive skills to manage what comes next.”
Somewhere between the mushrooms and the naan, I realise that education is not merely Linda’s profession. It is also her hobby (along with a round of golf).
“I’ve never not been enrolled for a qualification since the day I left school.”
Suddenly the alphabet after her name makes perfect sense: PhD, Doctor of Business Administration, MBA, management qualifications, a BCom in law, a BBA and what appears to be enough additional diplomas and certificates to suggest they reproduce quietly in her cupboards after dark.
She has just completed another postgraduate diploma, is finishing her LLB and is forever enrolling in online courses.
“I don’t want to go to bed any night not having learnt something new. That’s a waste of a day.”
Her staff have learnt she expects the same standard.
“The first thing I ask in staff meetings is, ‘What are you enrolled for? What are you studying?’ If you’ve got aspirations to get somewhere else, the only person that’s going to save you is a better version of yourself. You need to invest in yourself.”
I ask whether being a woman has shaped her leadership.
“I think it still matters in some arenas,” she says. “But you can only influence what is in your sphere of influence.”
Within her own organisations, she insists culture is established from the top.
“The behaviour is crafted by the leader. You lead with conviction. You lead as an ethical leader with a good moral compass. I can’t influence the rest of corporate South Africa, but I can influence the organisations I’m responsible for.”
Has being a woman ever made her hesitate?
“It’s never been a challenge for me because I just go for it. Whether I know how to do it or not, I just go for it. We’ll work out what works.”
Sunday Times Lifestyle
