WAKEFIELDS ACADEMY

Compulsory estate agent's qualifications have transformed the role of the estate agent. The in-house Wakefields Academy offers new consultants a wonderfully interactive, enjoyable and professional path into this dynamic industry.

A new year, a new face, and a freshly refurbished and contemporary Academy...it's the perfect time to join the Wakefields team, and enjoy the benefits of their first-class in-house training, geared towards you becoming a top professional and a success story in the world of property.

HELLO AND GOODBYE

Lindsay Gartrell has spent 44 years in the real estate business, and has been the Training Manager at Wakefields for the past 10 years. Tirelessly, with a lifetime of experience behind her, Lindsay built Wakefields Academy into a highly rated, accredited real estate educational centre of excellence. Lindsay retires at the end of 2018, leaving a wonderful legacy. As an integral part of the Wakefields family, she'll be sorely missed by both management and staff, but rumour has it, her successor plans on roping her in to give specialist lectures at the Academy.

Nicole Mullins, advocate and experienced property trainer, has been appointed as Lindsay's successor, bringing a wealth of youthful ideas to the role. As an LLB graduate, Nicole has a solid legal and contractual background, and as a young person, is a great exponent of property as a wonderful, professional career for young people.

Aside from her legal qualifications, Nicole comes from a long-standing 'property family', and has been steeped in every aspect of property since she was a youngster. Once qualified, she chose to work in training and accreditation in the property world, while still a practicing member of the National Bar Council of South Africa, and Wakefields welcomes her, her expertise and enthusiasm, to the Wakefields Academy.

A NEW PROFESSION AS AN ESTATE AGENT

School leaver? Graduate? Need to return to work? If you have a car, a smart phone and a laptop, you're nearly there.

Working in, and with, property, can be an immensely satisfying and rewarding career - financially and otherwise - and today, it's a professional one, only for those who're fully committed. The 'old' perception of working in real estate is outdated - this is a career, a profession, in a dynamic world where no two days are the same.

Nicole explains the initial process for new agents at the Wakefields Academy: "Our Launch Programme is exclusive to Wakefields, and it's an excellent means of unpacking real estate, and discovering exactly what being a real estate agent involves. Essentially, once you've been interviewed and accepted as a Wakefields sales consultant, we spend three weeks introducing you to the world of property, the #WakefieldsWay. This is not a qualification, it's an introduction and realistic overview, and it equips you with the tools to ensure you have the most successful start in real estate."

As a Wakefields sales consultant, your training at the Wakefields Academy is free of charge.

EARN WHILE YOU LEARN

The Launch Programme is part-time, and the remainder of your time, you're able to earn while you learn. You can get out there into the workplace, assisting buyers and sellers, creating your own network, familiarising yourself with the area in which you intend to operate, and a host of other skills you will have picked up at the Academy. You'll be allied to a mentor, a fully qualified, experienced estate agent, and have access to your fellow agents, your manager, and of course, your training manager, Nicole.

Wakefields wants you to succeed, and there is no limit to the on-tap support and advice. You're not alone.

AM I TOO YOUNG/TOO OLD TO START THIS CAREER?

Neither. It's true that the age of estate agents is coming down, and that's a great thing. Now we have school leavers with their deep, easy knowledge of technology, and older interns with entirely different ways of connecting people. Each has something to offer the other and the industry.

As Nicole says, "At the Academy, we encourage interaction and innovation. We're constantly examining new technologies so as to ensure our agents are leading, not following. We're currently working on integrating more social media into our Launch Programme, in particular how to use it correctly and effectively to enhance the buyer-seller experience.

WHEN AND WHERE CAN I START?

Come in to chat to Training Manager, Nicole Mullins, at Head Office on the Berea, or make an appointment to see your local Wakefields branch manager.

The Wakefields Academy is based in Kloof, and it's just undergone a fresh, contemporary make-over, ready for the first set of 2019 interns...on January 30th. The second Launch Programme is planned towards the end of March.

"We have five Launch programmes for 2019," says Nicole, "If you think this could be the profession in which you could be satisfied and successful, come in for a chat. Property is an exciting world, has enormous opportunities for financial success, has no retirement date, and to a great extent, you're an entrepreneur. Once you're qualified, you'll be running your own business but within an excellent, supportive framework."