NEWS
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Empowerment through training
in ammonia refrigeration
By John Ackermann
S
tarting out as A Perk Enterprises,
Ammonia Training Solutions has been
educating the industry for over two
decades on all things ammonia, under the
knowledgeable guidance of Andrew Perks.
Since 2011, Ammonia Training Solutions
(ATS) has been operating as a training
service provider to the industrial refrigeration
sector. Prior to this, the training was done
under the umbrella of A Perks Enterprises.
“But to increase relevance in the industry,
I chose a name that is more synonymous
with the services we provide and added
Ammonia Training Solutions to our group of
companies,” explains Andrew Perks.
The company boasts more than 20 years
of offering training and engineering services
to the industry. Around 2006, the South
African Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
Contractors’ Association (SARACCA), along
with merSETA, set out to upgrade the training
material and accreditations for the industry.
They needed subject matter experts to write
the necessary unit standards required by the
South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA)
and subsequently involved the ATS team,
who wrote 14 of the unit standards relevant
to ammonia plant safety. “As we had
already developed our training material and
were training ‘Safe handling of ammonia’
based on European standards, SAQA
decided to purchase our material and use