Cold Link Africa March April 2025 | Page 30

In the last issue we spoke of the concept for the Quayside training facility in Cape Town Harbour . I want to expand on that and tell the readers a bit more about what ’ s been happening - we have a lot of news in a short time .
CONTRIBUTORS
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN

History of the Quayside Training Academy

By Andrew Perks

In the last issue we spoke of the concept for the Quayside training facility in Cape Town Harbour . I want to expand on that and tell the readers a bit more about what ’ s been happening - we have a lot of news in a short time .

Firstly , a little bit of history for those people that have been asking who Crossberth is . Crossberth Cold
the ground up . Altie van Zyl of CBCS -
who occupies a seat on the food safety
committee of the Global Cold Chain Alliance
for fish and seafood products as these products are mainly processed , frozen or refrigerated onboard .
Stores ( CBCS ) started operating in the
( GCCA ) - has been a key advisor to the
The training is moving along at a pace
Tanker Basin of Table Bay Harbour during
project and will be developing food safety
and the whole industry is excited about
1996 specialising in berthing , stevedoring
courses and maintaining the relevance of
these new developments . The Quayside
and discharge services to the deep-sea
these courses .
Training Academy uses classroom-based
trawl sector . Crossberth is a licensed
For the hands-on deckhand and process
training and practical exercises on real
terminal operator and holds a certificate
operator training we have Future People .
systems as highlighted in figures 2 and 4 .
of compliance to the ISPS Security code -
We all know it ’ s not just about sitting people
Carlos highlights that this endeavour was a
they are not new to cold storage and the
in seats , it ’ s about motivation , it ’ s about
team effort bringing together all members of
fishing industry .
connecting with learners and getting people
CBCS from the board of directors to the staff
As mentioned , Carlos Mendoza , with
with the passion to get the message across .
on the floor . This type of training has never
the full support of the board of directors
Such a person is Dr Robin Ferguson from
been available before and Robin is reaching
and other key service providers , has
Future People . Having worked with major
out to upskill employees in the area of
motivated the development of this facility
to offer critical training and advice to
the cold chain . The academy is focusing
fishing groups , Robin has developed a broad
range of skill-development programmes ,
particularly in product handling and
processing . This is going to have a major impact in the industry .
GCCA are embracing this initiative
Andrew Perks is a subject expert in ammonia refrigeration . Since
All images supplied by A Perks Enterprises .
on developing skills to protect our cold
chain services , not only in South Africa
but across the African continent , including
North , East and West Africa .
Carlos has engaged top experts across
various sectors to build the academy from
The Crossberth and Future People practice centre and training academy .
processing in a cold chain environment .
Her contribution focuses on workplace
training in the deep-sea trawl industry
with a special interest in training seagoing
factory workers . It is these factories
which are the first link in the cold chain
Simulation facility for actual fish processing at the academy ..
and were present at the recent opening . Ongoing engagements with Ghana and Kenya regarding the co-development , delivery and assessment of workplace cold store training are progressing apace . The vision is to partner with local commercial enterprises as well as local training institutions to empower them to teach incountry nationals .
For the refrigeration safety / compliance component we have A Perks Enterprises .
At the end of October 2024 A Perks Enterprises provided specialised training at the academy to Transnet , the Port Authorities and Cape Town ’ s Disaster Management Services , focusing on ammonia incident management and safety
undertaking his apprenticeship in Glasgow in the 1960s he has held positions of contracts engineer , project engineer , refrigeration design engineer , company director for a refrigeration contracting company and eventually owning his own contracting company and low temperature cold store . He is now involved in adding skills to the ammonia industry , is merSETA accredited and has written a variety of unit standards for SAQA that define the levels to be achieved in training in our industry .

30 www . coldlinkafrica . co . za COLD LINK AFRICA • March / April 2025