“ There ' s a lot of incentives , but it ’ s the politics around apprentices whereby business owners find that young people coming out of school today have a different perspective of life in which they want to earn a wage without putting in the work . The result is a high dropout rate from apprenticeships and consequent wasted resources . They don ’ t have the financial obligation of paying for their own education or any sense of responsibility for the process , because it ’ s paid for by public funding . Many carry on for up to two years but fail to kick on to the level where they would qualify – and some ultimately decide the industry is not for them ,” says Basson . “ We ’ re doing well but need to better educate the industry . Nonetheless , we have the same number of apprentices now as when we opened . We also have a large number of people on shorter courses on site such as safe handling training for Freon refrigerants and ammonia mostly for plant

operators , which is the area which has picked up well . The majority of this training is for large companies , for whom we are on the vendor list – a process which takes some time .

“ The biggest challenge nationally at the moment is that we still don ’ t have a trade test for ammonia , with the majority of ammonia training being done by the industry itself with contractors training their own apprentices on ammonia on the client ’ s plant . That is a huge gap in our South African training .”

Basson says the country is currently in the process of developing a new curriculum ( the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations [ QCTO ], which has been described in a number of articles in Cold Link Africa in recent months ) with the current occupational curriculum based on unit standards phasing out this year . This means from next year onwards , testing will be on the new QCTO occupational qualification ( see page 20 ), which is a mix of theory and practical knowledge which must be done in a training centre .

“ The problem is we don ’ t yet have this new occupational qualification trade test , and the authorities need to produce one in line with QCTO or people cannot qualify .

“ At Raetech , we have two main qualifications : an air conditioning

refrigeration mechanic and the refrigeration mechanic . The air conditioning refrigeration mechanic , on level three , can specialise on various areas such as ammonia , CO 2 or synthetic refrigerants . The other is a longer course that will allow the mechanic to do basically everything .

“ We also have 13 individual modules , allowing a person to for instance become a unit three air conditioning installer . This caters to people who ’ ve been doing something for years and don ’ t need the full qualification . They only need a paper that entitles them to do one thing , such as a unitary A / C installer , or a duct work installer , and certifies that he / she knows how to do that properly . If they have ambition , they can do each module which adds up to the full qualification .

“ In establishing Raetech Academy , the gap that I identified in the market is to address employers that complain about the quality of skills in the field – now they can contribute to closing that skills gap . Now it ’ s up to the contracting companies to get their employees upskilled . Even if a contractor ’ s qualified staff leave after doing an apprenticeship with them – their attitude ought to be ‘ that ’ s fine ’ because they ’ ve contributed to creating skills in the country and simultaneously been rewarded

Supplied by Hennie Basson .

Hennie Basson , past president of SARACCA and owner of Raetech Academy in Paarl .

with a government incentive for that ,” says Basson . CLA

The biggest challenge nationally at the moment is that we still don ’ t have a trade test for ammonia .