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Generic trade preparation programme aims to plug skills gap

EXPOSURE
All stakeholders must cooperate to expose school children, youths and unemployed adults to industrial activity to enable a smooth transition from school into the workplace

EXPOSURE All stakeholders must cooperate to expose school children, youths and unemployed adults to industrial activity to enable a smooth transition from school into the workplace

Photo by Duane Daws

15th August 2014

By: Schalk Burger

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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Bridging and specialised courses that provide school-leavers and unemployed youth with the necessary industry entry qualifications to a trade, as well as expose them to how industry works and the technologies used in industry, can help to prepare them for training and apprenticeship courses to ensure that sufficient qualified artisans are able to support the automotive industry in the near future.

The cooperation of all stakeholders, including education organisations, civil society, government and industry, is required to provide all the necessary public technical vocational education and training (TVET) colleges with exposure to industry practices that tertiary colleges require to adapt curricula and develop short and full-length training courses, says South African diversified logistics major Imperial Automotive development and learning divisional GM Sean Fenn.

The Generic Trade Preparation Programme sees government and industry working together to bridge the gap between school and the workplace.

Both parties are cognisant that poor skills development poses a serious problem for the sustainability of private industry and the economy in South Africa over the long term, with sustainability a key driver for private-sector skills development.

“The technologies used in the automotive industry, as in other industries, are changing significantly and rapidly. “Imperial is taking TVET college teachers into our workshops to expose them to some of the modern automotive technologies and training methodologies used in the training of apprentices.”

“Industry is being proactive and has helped to realign TVET curricula, has helped to write new textbooks for the trades and provides skills training and skills transfers for TVET college lecturers. However, the learner pipeline needs to be enhanced from all sides through the involvement of all stakeholders to make a material difference,” says Imperial Holdings legal adviser Brandon Cohen.

Bridging programmes, as well as shorter community college courses, can be used to ensure that students have the minimum skills and exposure to the safe operation of tools and machines to enable them to be safely trained in TVET colleges and as apprentices.

The cooperation of all stakeholders should be aimed at exposing school children, the youth and unemployed adults to industrial activity to enable a smooth transition from school into the workplace.

“Despite more than a quarter of adults being unemployed, South Africa is unable to fill available technical job positions, owing to a lack of skilled candidates.”

By 2020, South Africa may sell around one-million new cars a year. This means the number of cars will increase significantly above the current ten-million cars. To service this number, the automotive industry will need 20 000 to 30 000 apprentices in training by 2030. More than 18 000 qualified in all 125 industries in 2012 to 2013. Industry needs to feed 9 600 young people into technical training each year just to bridge the current gap.

“Industry must take action to partner with TVETs and the Department of Higher Education and Training to bridge the gaps between school and the workplace. It needs to offer workplace-based learning while informing government of the issues and what is needed to overcome the problems of resistance to the concept of workplace learning,” concludes Cohen.

Fenn and Cohen spoke at the first event of the Future of SA Automotive roadshow, in Centurion, hosted by DB Shenker and AutoStream last month.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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