The imminent launch of the new dual system engineering pilot project in South Africa is set to revitalise the apprenticeship training system in the country.

There is international recognition of the fact that effective artisan training is one of the key building blocks required to enhance international competitiveness in the drive to deal with the challenges of the new world order of globalisation.

A visit to Switzerland by a high-level delegation from the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), led by Minister Blade Nzimande and accompanied by Swiss-South African Cooperation Initiative (SSACI) CEO Ken Duncan in May 2011 was the spark that ignited an interest in the dual system of apprenticeship training.

The key element of the Swiss/German/Austrian dual system is a model where apprentices are indentured to companies and then undergo their trade training on an alternating basis by attending theory classes at a vocational college for two or three days a week, with workplace training in the company for the remaining days of the week. The benefits are greater than those of the South African block release system.

Instead of the theoretical and practical training taking place in isolation of each other, there is planned and immediate integration of these two facets of training, as each element reinforces the other. The outcome is the development of the holistic competence of the artisan who, once qualified, is able to play a productive role in the workplace much more quickly than artisans trained through other systems.

The planning process to change tracks and introduce a new training model is naturally a complex one. It requires detailed planning, which includes the selection of further education and training (FET) colleges to offer the theoretical component of the training, based on a specific trade offering, identification and orientation of companies to participate, and selection of high-calibre youngsters studying towards the national certificate (vocational) programme at the college to undergo dual system training.

Also important is the establishment of the administrative bedrock of the programme, which includes management arrangements, roles and respons-ibilities of all the parties involved, and agreement on the funding model in terms of grants to employers, based on the recently finalised national funding model for artisan training, as well as adaptation of the curricula, where necessary, to ensure that they support the dual system implementation.

Duncan is responsible for the overall management of the programme, including liaison with the DHET and the participating sector education and training authorities (Setas), currently the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority for the manufacturing sector and the Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority for the chemicals sector.

“High levels of participation of private companies in apprenticeship training through the dual system in Switzerland based on the integration of institutional training and authentic workplace experience ensure high levels of quality and relevance to the economy of the training and this, in turn, leads to exceptionally low levels of youth unemployment,” says Duncan.

The three FET colleges selected for the pilot project are the West Coast College, in Cape Town, for welding; the Port Elizabeth College, for mechatronics; and the Umfolozi College, in Richards Bay, for the training of electricians. The selection of the young participants for the programme is well under way and has already revealed positive spin-offs, such as a significant improvement in class performance at college, requests for extra maths lessons and a decline in substance abuse as the youngsters realise that they need to pass a medical examination to be accepted onto the apprenticeship programme.

Ninety apprentices will embark on the pilot project, with the first group starting in November and the rest in early 2014.

The training of apprentices that emerged from the medieval guilds in Europe is founded on a system that is traditionally slow to change and embrace innovation.

Arising from a happy coincidence of interests in South Africa, a great deal of attention is focused at present on the national drive to become internationally competitive as well as on skills shortages that hobble economic growth, concerns around youth unemployment and the imperative to revive the manufacturing sector.

Closely aligned with these issues is the DHET drive to support high-quality artisan training, which is underscored by the declaration of 2013 as the Year of the Artisan, as well as the need to draw in far more small and medium-sized enterprises to become active trainers of apprentices, as in Switzerland and Germany, with the concomitant benefit of low youth unemployment.

With the dedicated commitment of all the participants, it is hoped that the three-year dual apprenticeship pilot project will provide valuable lessons for South Africa in the quest to drive industrial competitiveness and to enable a cohort of highly skilled and competent young artisans to enter the workforce and make a meaningful contribution to economic growth.