Endeavouring to contribute to the South African economy and job creation, Chinese home appliance manufacturer Hisense will next year implement a programme at its factory in Atlantis to upskill 1 000 unemployed electricians in the Western Cape.

Hisense skills development manager Mark Dammert told Engineering News during a tour of the company’s R350-million manufacturing facility this month that the pilot phase, where ten people from the Northern Cape and the Western Cape would be trained, would take place in March 2017.

“We want to look at various aspects of the project, including the costs involved, so that, when we take it forward, we will know exactly what to expect,” he said.

If the pilot phase succeeds, training will take six months and will focus on after-sales service for televisions and cellphones.

Dammert pointed out that the goal of the programme was to upskill people between the ages of 18 and 25 from rural areas and train them in aftercare service maintenance, enabling them to act as agents for Hisense products, as there was a gap in the market for after-sales service.

Dammert highlighted that demand for Hisense products in South Africa was increasing significantly and that more after-sales service was needed to keep up with demand, especially around the festive season.

“If the candidates are successful during training, we will try to assist them in starting their own after-sales service businesses, creating more downstream jobs and contributing to the economy,” he said.

Dammert noted that Hisense would also consider employing trained graduates at its Atlantis-based factory.

The factory, which was officially launched in 2013, currently has 500 employees from the Atlantis region and manufactures refrigerators and televisions for the local and export markets.

Recruitment will take place at the end of November.

Also speaking to Engineering News, Hisense exports key account manager Grant Pendlebury said that the company had plans to double the size of the factory over the next few years and significantly increase its staff complement.

Talking about the South African branch’s export strategy, he said that the company had increased the markets it was focusing on in Africa, noting that the factory currently supplied all the Southern African Development Community countries, as well as Reunion Island.

“We plan to have in-country staff in selected countries to focus on Hisense and to support the service and sales side of the business. We also want to expand into northern Africa,” he said.

Pendlebury highlighted that logistics posed a major challenge when supplying African countries, in addition to the different types of documentation required.

“In terms of currency, we often find that not all countries have the correct currency to buy products from us, especially when it comes to US dollars, which is problematic,” he said.

Pendlebury added that the company tried to mitigate these challenges as far as possible.

“Our products go through all the testing points and pass all the required tests in various African countries. We also have in-country distributors that we supply and they supply the market,” he said.