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Education & Skills Development News

Play your part, Motshekga tells parents as schools shut over Covid-19

By: News24Wire 16th March 2020 In his address to the nation on Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that schools would be closed from Wednesday, which is why the government has urged parents to take responsibility for their children in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus. Basic Education Minister Angie... →

Economy will be severely impacted by coronavirus - Ramaphosa

By: News24Wire 16th March 2020 With South Africa's economy already feeling the pinch of the Covid-19 pandemic, President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that government is on the verge of finalising a comprehensive package of interventions to mitigate the expected impact. The president announced this in an address to the nation... →

Company reaches new heights with award

By: Cameron Mackay 13th March 2020 Height management solutions providers Skyriders received an award from a major petrochemicals producer in December last year for achieving significant reductions in its maintenance costs and boosting health and safety at one of the producer’s refineries, in Mpumalanga. The award was for a... →

REACHING NEW HEIGHTS Skyriders created a methodology and risk assessments for this maintenance project, including a trial run finished last October, and the actual maintenance undertaking in November

Programme to help startup drone companies launched in Gauteng

By: Rebecca Campbell 13th March 2020 The first drone (unmanned air vehicle) start-up accelerator programme in Africa was recently launched in Katlehong, south east of Johannesburg. (Katlehong lies within the City of Ekurhuleni.) The programme is being hosted by the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Rapid Incubator (CfERI) of the... →

SAA says adhering to safety protocols on Covid-19

By: African News Agency 12th March 2020 National carrier South African Airways said on Thursday its operational health and safety procedures were in line with the World Health Organisation’s protocols to protect its passengers and crew from contracting Covid-19. On Wednesday WHO declared the coronavirus disease a pandemic as it... →

South African employers cite limited hiring intentions, payroll rises in Q2

By: Marleny Arnoldi 10th March 2020 South African employees have little to no intention to hire new employees during the second quarter of 2020, recruitment solutions company ManpowerGroup has found. Its latest Employment Outlook Survey shows that about 8% of employers expect to increase salaries, while 5% expect to decrease... →

Cloud service provider attains Level 1 BEE status

By: Simone Liedtke 9th March 2020 Cloud service provider Amazon Web Services South Africa (AWS ZA) has attained Level 1 broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) status. To achieve this, AWS ZA scored the maximum points for enterprise development, supplier development and ownership elements of the scorecard upon first... →

Companies urged to tap IT skills concentrated in some regions

By: Schalk Burger 6th March 2020 Concentrations of high-level information technology (IT) skills in various regions worldwide can be tapped to provide expertise and overcome constraints in local talent pools for companies concentrated in a region or market and multinational companies, says local industrial enterprise resource... →

TERENCE MOOLMAN Companies must have ongoing training initiatives to arm the workforce with the correct skills in an ever-changing world

DTIC reaches agreement with PepsiCo

By: Tasneem Bulbulia 5th March 2020 An agreement between the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition and PepsiCo has been reached, and the buyout of Pioneer Foods by PepsiCo is currently with the Competition Tribunal for approval, Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel informed during the Black Business Council's yearly... →

Lesedi keen to retain nuclear skills built up over years in South Africa

By: Kim Cloete 5th March 2020 South African engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance company Lesedi is keen to use its nuclear expertise and skills in South Africa and other African countries and is also looking to expand its focus to Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. Lesedi has diversified its business and is active... →

Photo by Creamer Media
Koeberg power station

Numsa heads to Constitutional Court to have Aveng Trident Steel workers reinstated

By: Marleny Arnoldi 4th March 2020 The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has approached the Constitutional Court to seek the reinstatement of 733 workers who were dismissed by Aveng Trident Steel. The steel fabricator in 2015 issued a Section 189 notice, informing workers of its plans to restructure the... →

Skilled trades, technicians, sales and marketing most difficult positions to fill

By: Simone Liedtke 4th March 2020 Recruiting agency ManpowerGroup’s thirteenth edition of its yearly ‘Talent Shortage Survey’ has found that skilled trades, technicians and sales and marketing positions top the charts as the top three most difficult positions to fill in South Africa, and globally. According to the 2019 report,... →

Ramaphosa says key State wage bill savings will stem from lower wage growth, not job cuts

By: News24Wire 2nd March 2020 President Cyril Ramaphosa says that the State's plan to cut the costs of the public sector wage bill does not mean that it also intends to "dramatically" cut the size of the civil service. In his weekly newsletter on Monday, Ramaphosa weighed in on Finance Minister Tito Mboweni's Budget... →

President Cyril Ramaphosa

Not all is lost for the construction industry, says AfriSam

By: Simone Liedtke 28th February 2020 The 2020 Budget, as outlined by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni earlier this week, “didn’t give much hope to the construction industry”, construction materials company AfriSam sales and marketing executive Richard Tomes told Engineering News on Friday. Growth in this sector was expected to remain... →

AfriSam sales and marketing executive Richard Tomes speaks to Engineering News about the 2020 Budget and how it could influence the future of the country's infrastructure and construction sectors, and the businesses - like AfriSam - that operate within this space. Video: Creamer Media's Kutlwano Matlala. Editing: Creamer Media's Nicholas Boyd.

Accelerator to help start-up drone companies launched in Gauteng

By: Rebecca Campbell 28th February 2020 The first drone (unmanned air vehicle) startup accelerator programme in Africa was launched in Katlehong, south east of Johannesburg, on Friday. The programme is being hosted by the Ekurhuleni Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) College. The initial programme is a pilot of the... →

Stainless steel growth unlikely in 2020

By: Mamaili Mamaila 28th February 2020 The level of activity in the local stainless steel sector’s value chain has dwindled in the past decade, mainly owing to international competition, low steel prices and the slow growth of the local economy. →

FULL OF VIGOR Stainless steel is one of the youngest industrial materials globally, managing to positively change people’s lives

Digitalisation beneficial for steel producers

By: Mamaili Mamaila 28th February 2020 Digitalisation will become an increasingly important strategy for steel producers to achieve a competitive advantage in the market, says metallurgical industry plant and integrated systems provider SMS group MD Pieter Bezuidenhout. →

Volatile steel prices to continue in 2020

By: Mamaili Mamaila 28th February 2020 The volatile prices of domestic steel producers and domestic steel merchants are likely to continue in 2020, says national employer federation Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) chief economist Dr Michael Ade. →

MICHAEL ADE 2020 is still going to be a difficult year for the metals and engineering sector, with ongoing pressure on margins

Sita sponsors cyberlab at school in rural KZN

By: Natasha Odendaal 28th February 2020 The State Information Technology Agency (Sita) has sponsored an information and communication technology (ICT) laboratory at Manhlenga junior secondary school in Gazini village, in the uMhlabuyalingana local municipality. The sponsorship of a cyberlab for the rural KwaZulu-Natal school, 7km from... →

Sector in dire need of transformation

By: Mamaili Mamaila 28th February 2020 The manufacturing industry, and particularly the metals and engineering sector, is in much need of transformation, says national employer federation the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa). →

MICHELLE NORRIS Women working in the metals and engineering sector are predominantly found in administrative job functions

National budget funds major science, technology and higher education projects

By: Rebecca Campbell 27th February 2020 Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Dr Blade Nzimande has welcomed the allocations made to his departments (Higher Education and Training, and Science and Innovation) in the 2020 national budget. The budget assigns R396-billion to the two departments. Two major initiatives are being... →

Photo by Donna Slater/Creamer Media
Dr Blade Nzimande

Schneider Electric Academy 4IR energy skills

27th February 2020 Electricity management company Schneider Electric’s academy is linked to its global community of practice, and provides training on new energy and electricity management technologies. Schalk Burger has the story. →

Schneider Electric Academy 4IR energy skills

Cosatu: We will collapse the public service if wages are reviewed

By: News24Wire 26th February 2020 The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has threatened to strike and "collapse" the public service if government does not honour the current public service wage agreement, Cosatu national spokesperson Sizwe Pamla told Fin24 on Wednesday. The agreement is non-negotiable and any attempt... →

Nehawu says govt wants to review public sector wage deal

By: Reuters 26th February 2020 South African public sector union the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) said on Wednesday that the government wanted to review a three-year wage deal with public sector workers struck in 2018, calling the move "a declaration of war". Nehawu said in a statement that if... →

Millennials making the biggest strides in education

By: Tasneem Bulbulia 25th February 2020 Millennials have made substantial strides in educational outcomes, Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said, releasing the ‘2018 Education and Labour Market Outcomes in South Africa’ report, in Pretoria, on Tuesday. Millennials makes up the largest share of the working-age population (54.1%),... →

Two trade unions demand that SAA business rescue respects workers’ rights

By: Rebecca Campbell 25th February 2020 Two trade unions – the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and the South African Cabin Crew Association (Sacca) – have jointly accused the Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) currently overseeing the business rescue process for State-owned South African Airways (SAA) of... →

Group launched to tackle Compensation Fund issues

By: Tasneem Bulbulia 24th February 2020 A council of concerned industry leaders, the Injured Workers Action Group (IWAG), was launched on Monday, over concerns about what it says is the “technological collapse” of the R60-billion Compensation Fund that is legally mandated to cover the medical bills and disability pensions of workers... →

Fund gives public healthcare sector's human resources a boost

By: Yvonne Silaule 24th February 2020 About 100 doctors and 34 research graduates, the vast majority of them hailing from severely under-resourced areas, have been absorbed into the public healthcare system as a product of the Public Health Enhancement Fund (PHEF). PHEF chairperson Dr Stavros Nicolau pronounced during the PHEF CEO’s... →

Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize

Cosatu’s plan on Eskom is immoral – Cape Chamber of Commerce

By: Sane Dhlamini 24th February 2020 The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry labelled the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ plan to save ailing power utility Eskom using Government Employees Pension Fund funds as immoral. Cosatu recently suggested saving Eskom by using R250-billion from the Public Investment Corporation,... →

Photo by Supplied by Cape Chamber
President of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Geoff Jacobs

Eskom’s survival cannot be based on continuing tariff increases, says Minerals Council

By: Marleny Arnoldi 21st February 2020 The Minerals Council South Africa has reiterated the significant job losses that may result from power utility Eskom being granted the additional R27.3-billion in revenue it is seeking. In a media release issued ahead of a submission at public consultations held by the National Energy Regulator... →

Photo by Creamer Media
Minerals Council South Africa chief economist Henk Langenhoven

4IR vocational training a viable alternative to Grade 12

By: Schalk Burger 21st February 2020 The digital world being ushered in by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) requires more than just office workers; it requires engineers, technicians and artisans. Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) enables learners to further their studies, as it creates more opportunities... →

Specialist on course despite pressures

By: Mamaili Mamaila 21st February 2020 Despite the local manufacturing sector being under pressure, mouldered product specialist DEMS’ rubber manufacturing division – which operates within a very niche and specialised market – has not been affected negatively, says DEMS MD Mark Baptie. →

ALWAYS ON EDGE DEMS is always investigating and looking for opportunities to remain competitive and continue to have an edge in the market

Rubber remains resilient despite strained sector

By: Mamaili Mamaila 21st February 2020 Engineered rubber remains a requirement for many industries notwithstanding local manufacturing industry woes, says rubber products manufacturer Hudson Rubber MD Stoney Steenkamp. →

RUBBING OFF THE RIGHT WAY The rubber sector will survive the current unfavourable economic climate as the product remains resilient and relevant in the industrial markets

Bleak outlook for rubber SMMEs in 2020

By: Mamaili Mamaila 21st February 2020 With the industrial market aspect of its rubber business having declined in 2019 by 25%, rubber compounding specialist National Rubber Matmin (NRM) MD Mike Stuart says 2020 is “not looking much better”. →

MIKE STUART National Rubber Matmin has had success in supplying products to the Australian mining sector

Cape Town adds more energy to Indaba

By: Cameron Mackay 21st February 2020 The decision to host this year’s Africa Energy Indaba at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on March 3 and 4, rather than in Johannesburg, where it was hosted previously, has resulted in increased interest from African and global delegates to attend the event, says Africa Energy Indaba... →

ENERGISING AFRICA The sub-Saharan and East African regions will feature strongly at the indaba as electricity demand in these regions, and the rest of Africa, is growing

Nzimande says proposed Ekurhuleni university will have high-tech focus

By: Marleny Arnoldi 20th February 2020 Following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s mention during his State of the Nation Address last week of a new University of Science and Innovation, to be built in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Dr Blade Nzimande this week provided further detail. The Minister... →

Labour federation Fedusa slams 3.8% national minimum wage increase

By: African News Agency 19th February 2020 The Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) said it was outraged after the employment and labour minister only increased the statutory minimum wage by 3.8% to R20.76 an hour with effect from March 1. The country's National Minimum Wage Act came into effect at the beginning of 2019,... →

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