INSIGHT
BUILDING
TOMORROW
By Tania Tarr
The release of the latest unemployment figures does not bode well for job seekers in South
Africa. The situation is far more dire for young people in the country with pundits speculating that
unemployment among school leavers and university graduates may be as high as 50%.
T
he problem has been exacerbated
over the past few years with
major companies cutting their
apprenticeship programmes, coupled
with their reluctance to invest in training
programmes. This is, however, not the
case at Pilot Crushtec International, where
we make it part of our company ethos to
offer practical experience to students who
wish to complete their diplomas.
Some eight or nine years ago we
decided to start our own recruitment pool
from which to draw the very best talent
in South Africa. We soon noticed that we
were approached by both educational
institutions and learners who wanted to
complete their practical training with us to
secure their qualification.
As part of the National Diploma in
Mechanical Engineering there is a practical
phase one, that needs to be done in a
workshop environment, and a practical
phase two that needs to be done in an
engineering design environment. We made
www.equipmentandhire.co.za
it an HR priority to address this opportunity
and soon brought in students, who had
done their three- or four-year course at a
higher education institution, to take them
through their paces.
This practical experience offered by Pilot
Crushtec is an integrated process with
numerous formalities and milestones that
must be reached and passed in order to
qualify. All our programmes are in line with
and approved by the respective institutions,
which visit us regularly to ensure we
maintain our rigid standards.
At the moment Pilot Crushtec brings in
about four students into the P1, workshop
phase, every six months. After they have
completed the full six months, they are,
via an interview process, progressed
through to P2. Generally, we can only have
two candidates in our P2 phase at a time,
as there is a lot of personal interaction
and focus that needs to take place, as
opposed to the workshop phase where
there is a higher degree of independence.
This in-service training has yielded several
benefits for both learners and Pilot
Crushtec alike. First, it has allowed us to
create a recruitment pool second-to-none
and, more importantly, the students who
go through both P1 and P2 obtain their
National Diploma.
The practical part of the diploma
is necessary to graduate, but it is an
unfortunate reality in South Africa that there
aren’t many companies that offer practical
opportunities. Additionally, there are costs
associated with embarking on this journey,
which many small to medium companies
just cannot afford. The SETAs do their part
but, as with all government processes, there
is a lot of red tape and bureaucracy to deal
with, which may deter organisations that
don't have dedicated training officers or HR
departments. We have, however, realised
that the reason behind all our efforts is for
the learners, the future of the country and
the sustainability of our own company. We
therefore do the due diligence. We urge all
AUGUST 2019
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