With the shortage of technical skills countrywide, New Age Engineering Solutions is committed to training the youth of South Africa through their Internship, Upskilling and Workplace (IUW) programme. So far, New Age has recruited 93 trainees, who are based at the company’s workshop in Evander and at the Sasol Secunda fuel plant, both in Mpumalanga. The company’s purpose is to serve, solve and uplift and it hopes to uplift the youth through this programme. The recruited 93 trainees are assigned to the following trades:

• Mechanical fitter
• Mechanical engineer
• Welder
• Metallurgists
• Safety officer
• Quality control
• Pipe fitter

“This year we increased the graduate intake because every year there are more people who are without jobs and New Age has a duty to expose graduates to the workplace environment,” says New Age CEO Joseph Zinyana.  The IUW programme is also a vehicle to facilitate and accelerate skills transfer within New Age. 

 “Our organisation is growing and requires our employees and young trainees to be placed in different geographic areas within the business. For this to happen, technical and company system knowledge is required and can only be transferred from "long -standing company members”.

Zinyana believes that through training programmes within the company, New Age will achieve longevity. He is passionate about education and training. He started his career as a high school teacher and then pursued a career in engineering. His qualifications include two Master’s degrees in Metallurgy and Welding. Zinyana is also the president of the South African Institute of Welding Board of Directors. He has 23 years of experience in education, technology, engineering, maintenance and business development. 

What started out as a company that sold welding rods, with just a handful employees, is now a successful service provider in the SMIEP sector, providing mechanical and welding engineering solutions to the oil, gas, fossil fuel, mining and nuclear industry. Their clients include Astron Energy, Eskom and Sasol, among others.

Zinyana co-founded New Age Welding Solutions alongside Suzan Zinyana in November 2003. After establishing the company, they expanded their products and services and, in January 2017, changed its name to New Age Engineering Solutions. Over the years Zinyana has learned two lessons in business, the first of which is that that “cash is king”. “The second lesson is that our biggest asset is our team,” he says. New Age has just over 350 employees and operates in four geographical areas: Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Free State and the Western Cape. It will celebrate 19 years of existence in 2023. 

Zinyana has never doubted New Age’s ability to succeed. “Any business that is operated by highly technical and financial skills will succeed. In this case, I am the specialist in the services that the company offers,” he says. 

Of course, there were naysayers along the way, but Zinyana says on his ride to the top, he always focused his attention on positive energy. “If anyone had negative comments, this would have been "noise" in my ears,” he adds. 

According to Zinyana, people for a long time assumed that New Age's sole offering was welding services but that is not the case. New Age offers clients peace of mind by solving whatever problems they might encounter in the SMIEP sector. The company prides itself on delivering within schedule, and on budget, providing high quality and safety standards. It boasts the following accreditations: 

ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, ISO 45001:2018 and ISO 3834. 

Their list of services includes project and contract management; turnkey project solutions in the structural, mechanical and piping space; plant shutdown services; specialised torquing; joint integrity solutions; and electrical, instrumentation and welding services. The company believes that its success was built on four main pillars, which include the team’s demonstrated pursuit of excellence, the integration of progressive technology for enhanced efficiency and the team’s approachable attitude.

New Age is a level 1 empowering organisation with 51% black ownership and 44.48% black woman ownership and is held by holding company CG Tech along with fellow subsidiaries Prommac and Virtulab. 

Prommac offers innovative maintenance, shutdown and multi-discipline project solutions. The company is at the forefront of innovation and technology, working closely with clients to “proactively deliver the best solutions safely, on-time and within budget”.

Virtulab aims to be an all-in-one event, education, corporate training and office space platform. It is designed to maximise engagement and productivity in an uncertain world through its Virtuworx platform, which delivers real experiences and real human connections while saving time and money and reducing carbon footprint.

New Age has grown significantly over the years and recently welcomed new engineering and construction experts to its executive management team. This is part of its plan to grow the business beyond the African borders. 

“I can assure the industry that New Age offers more than a decade’s worth of experience in big shutdowns and we have the capacity and capability to execute to our highest client requirements,“ concludes Zinyana.

Tel: 017 631 5282/ 021 271 0228 | E-mail: admin@newage-eng.com | www.newage-eng.com