TRAINING
41
Apprentices warm to plumbing
By Eamonn Ryan
AJC Plumbers has four apprentices -
Innocent Mnisi (26); Sandisiwe Mbolekua (25);
Sheron Mashele (24); and Keelibone Mahlake (30)
- working for the firm, with owner Arthur Classen
describing the project as “a great success”.
Mnisi says she heard about the project through
a friend and applied via the college, Ekurhuleni
East College, where she had been studying civil
engineering. The latter, however, was an industry in
which she could find no work and get no experience.
“Initially I knew nothing about plumbing, but now that
the opportunity has arisen and the more I do it I have
fallen in love with plumbing.”
Mbolekua describes the programme as being
split between college and work blocks, with the
first college block having been four months. “The
college block is also divided between theory
and practical training – we learn something and
then do it in a workshop, and now do it in the
workplace. Here at AJC, we do actual work on site
alongside a qualified plumber.” She also studied
civil engineering at college but could find no
programme to give her practical experience like the
current apprenticeship project.
From left: AJC Plumbers’ four apprentices - Innocent Mnisi (26); Sandisiwe Mbolekua
(25); Sheron Mashele (24); and Keelibone Mahlake (30) – with owner Arthur Classen
second from left.
“When this opportunity arose, I thought it was not far
off from what I was already studying, so I grabbed
the chance. I love working with my hands, and this is
also construction-type work.
Mashele says: “We started in January for four
months, and the rest of the time we have been here
at AJC. Initially, we were placed with other employers
where we could not do actual plumbing, and IOPSA
changed that to bring us to AJC from 1 July.”
Now, says Mahlake, they are doing “piping for the
water supply to bathtubs and toilets, shower traps
and sewer lines.”
Their experience of plumbing is still in its early
stages, and all four still have the dream to qualify
as plumbers, but to build on that and find a career
which is not quite so repetitive, they each say. PA
IOPSA’s Kwekho Mpepho, who manages the apprenticeship pilot project.
“Initially I knew nothing about plumbing, but now that
the opportunity has arisen and the more I do it
I have fallen in love with plumbing.”
January 2020 Volume 25 I Number 11
www.plumbingafrica.co.za