NEWS
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Artisans are changing
the game
COLD LINK AFRICA
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From left: Lee-Anne Andrews, occupational boilermaker/welder lecturer at False Bay TVET College;
Candra Pedro, first female Trade Tested shipbuilder in South Africa; and Ndileka Ndzolo, False Bay TVET
College Trade Test coordinator.
S
outh African TVET colleges are
changing perceptions and
breaking barriers in previously
male-dominated industries – with
female artisans.
It’s pretty much a given that any
schoolgirl (or schoolboy) who is asked to
describe a ‘boilermaker’ or ‘shipbuilder’
will not imagine anyone remotely like
Lee-Anne Andrews or Candra Pedro,
but this is destined to change if they
have anything to do with it. And it’s
not just because gender prejudice
and stereotypes have no place in our
democracy.
With the country experiencing an
official unemployment rate of 27,6%
and a youth unemployment rate of
63,4%, our economy needs double the
number of artisans it currently produces
annually if it is to grow to a level that
provides decent work for everyone.
There’s no time to wait for everyone
to get with the (gender equity)
programme.
In Andrews’ case, that programme
was the newly launched NC(V)
Engineering Fabrication certificate
course in which she enrolled at
Northlink College in 2008. After
passing many of the 21 subjects with
distinction, she joined Damen Shipping
as an apprentice boilermaker in
2011, and passed her trade test in
Boilermaking in May 2013 – becoming
the first female boilermaker in South
Africa. At just 27 years old, Andrews is
also a lecturer at False Bay Technical
4
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
and Vocational Education and
Training (TVET) College.
With both a father and brother
being artisans, Bonteheuwel-born
Candra Pedro began making unusual
but natural choices in high school
already, including taking Woodwork
as a subject. After matriculating at
Spes Bona High in 2010, she enrolled
for the N5-level National Certificate
in Multi-Disciplinary Drawing Office
Practice. Soon thereafter, she saw
an Armscor advert for a shipbuilding
apprenticeship, immediately applied
and was placed in the Shipbuilding
Apprenticeship Programme based at
Simonstown Dockyard. After completing
her Structural Steel and Plating N2
Certificate at Northlink College and
six years of work to meet the work
experience requirement, she took the
trade test at False Bay TVET College in
May 2019.
Andrews says, “As the first qualified
female boilermaker I felt honoured to
test Candra during her Shipbuilding
trade test. I admired her confident
ability to perform under tremendous
pressure. I’m really proud of her for
setting a benchmark and for being so
inspiring to other young women.”
False Bay TVET College Trade Test
Centre coordinator, Ndileka Ndzolo,
is quick to set the record straight for
anyone who thinks that the path female
artisans choose is easy.
“The artisan environment is not easy
at all. Having been a male-dominated
environment historically, learning
and succeeding in it requires a lot of
courage, focus, determination, and
resilience.”
Despite this, Ndzolo says there has
been a substantial increase in females
successfully completing trade tests,
“Especially in the past two years or
so,” she says, and ascribes this to the
Department of Higher Education and
Training (DHET)’s strategy from around
2014 of publicising artisanship through
national roadshows.
Pedro says her male supervisors and
head artisans were protective of her
as the only female and the youngest
apprentice in her class. That doesn’t
mean she had an easier ride, but she is
grateful to the staff for always pushing
her to do more, especially now-retired
Shipbuilding Training officer, Rafieq
Fisher. Pedro’s achievement had the
added value of helping her class and
workmates to see their trades less in
terms of gender and more in terms of
competence and skill.
Having blazed the trail, Andrews and
Pedro feel more women will become
artisans, as role models now exist who
proved that it can be done. “If you can
stand heights and tight spaces and
getting dirty, all you need to succeed is
determination, perseverance, and self-
belief,” says Pedro.
Are you a female in the HVAC&R
industry? What has your experience
been like? Share your story by emailing:
[email protected] CLA
CIRCULATION: Jul - Dec 2018
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OFFICIAL PUBLICATION
COLD LINK AFRICA •
OCTOBER 2019