Lientjie matriculated in 1984 and holds the following qualifications: National Diploma Food Service Management, National Diploma Tertiary Education, National Higher Diploma Food and Nutrition, BTech Food & Beverage Management, MTech Food and Beverage Management and have completed her PhD with Title:
Accessible career paths for persons with different degrees of hearing loss at the National Institute for the Deaf in December 2019. She is also a qualified Facilitator, registered Assessor, Moderator and Skills Development Facilitator.
After pursuing a career in the South African Hospitality Industry, she discovered her true passion: education and training. She joined the Tshwane University of Technology in 1991, where she was the Director of one of the Universities’ Centers of Excellence. Over a period of 16 years, she committed herself to skills development aimed at unemployed youth and job creation.
She then joined Compass Group Southern Africa (part of a Global Corporate) as National Talent Manager in 2007 and had the privilege of traveling the world for eight years in pursuit of global best practice that can be localized in the Learning and Development space.
Her relationship with the National Institute for the Deaf started in 2000 when she assisted the NID to become an accredited Private Training Provider.
After the emotional experiences of her brother becoming deaf after a visit to Nigeria, and her husband experiencing severe hearing loss, her world view was changed. She had a renewed empathy with persons with disabilities and after leaving the Corporate World, she joined the NID in 2015 on a full-time basis as Chief Training Officer and was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of NID Training NPC on 1 August 2021.
Her focus is on skills development for gainful employment in an attempt to address the 85% unemployment rate amongst D/deaf and disabled youth in South Africa.
She specializes in curriculum differentiation, adapted facilitation, assessment and moderation practices, reasonable accommodation and workplace sensitization for persons with disabilities.