The National Tooling Initiative Programme (NTIP), supported by the Gauteng Tooling Initiative (GTI), in conjunction with the Toolmaking Association of South Africa (Tasa) and the Gauteng Department of Economic Devel-opment (GDED), has launched an enterprise development programme to bring Gauteng tooling manufacturers in line with global best practice and boost their competitiveness and profitability.

This follows the successful roll-out in 2010 of the Tool, Die and Mouldmaking (TDM) Powered Programme, an initiative to equip aspiring toolmakers with the skills needed to pursue careers in South Africa’s tooling industry.

The first 200 Gauteng-based students from the NTIP will graduate in mid-2014 with an internationally recognised qualification in toolmaking and machining, virtually guaranteeing employment.

Both initiatives form part of the broader drive by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Tasa to revitalise the South African tool-, die-, mouldmaking and precision-machining sector to meet the tooling demands of local manufacturers. This is driven at national level through the national tooling initiative, otherwise known as Intsimbi, which was established in 2006.

GTI CEO Henk Snyman says tooling opportunities in South Africa are worth about R12-billion and 80% of tools are imported because local toolmakers do not have the capacity to meet demand. If this business remains in South Africa, it would contribute to significant growth in the sector and create jobs, he says.

Boosting the TDM and precision-machining sector supports government’s National Development Plan. Nurturing highly skilled toolmakers aligns with the aspirations of Higher Education and Training Minister Dr Blade Nzimande, as expressed in the 2012 Green Paper on Post-School Education and Training.

Last year, the NTIP conducted a national benchmarking exercise involving tooling companies to compare local companies with international best practice and identify the gap between them. It also conducted two pilot inter- ventions in Gauteng to identif opportunities in the sector.

The results prompted the GTI to focus on assisting Tasa members in Gauteng in aligning the association with global standards and the success of these efforts will depend on tooling companies’ ability to deliver world-class product on time and within budget, says Snyman.

Another aim of the GTI is to get Tasa members to work in clusters to enable them to meet the demands of large tooling projects because existing individual tooling companies are too small to deliver on larger contracts.