Business and training: community plumbing
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Plumbers’ skills development is every plumbing stakeholder’ s responsibility
Daily as a plumbing trainer, plumbing contractors, plumbing maintenance service providers, plumbing suppliers, and homeowners ask me to recommend or provide a list of registered qualified plumbers
By
Sam Dubazana, owner of the Plumbing Academy
This is a challenge, because qualified and professional plumbers are either employed, self-employed, retired, or deceased.
Professional plumbers are uncommon across the world and not just in South Africa; a need exists for plumbers that provide a pleasant experience, but plumbers need to be properly trained to be registered and qualified.
So, who is responsible for the training of plumbers?
All users of plumbers, stakeholders, managers of plumbers, and qualified plumbers share the responsibility to train plumber-trainees, and they should all get involved in suggestions or inputs into the development of plumbers:
• Plumbers’ employers’ associations for the recommendation of tasks or modules to meet their members’ plumbing needs.
• The plumbing manufacturers’ associations for recommendation on compulsory product specifications and installation instructions.
• The plumber’ s union to promote and protect the rights of plumber members.
• Public and private training colleges and plumbing contractors’ places of work for providing in-service training.
• The local government’ s water and sanitation department.
• Government sector SETAs, National Artisan Moderation Body( NAMB), Quality Council for Trades and Occupations( QCTO), and the South African Qualification Authority( SAQA).
The plumbing trade is not marketed as a critical skill in the construction industry and a lucrative career opportunity— students do not hold the qualification in high regard.
Real competence in any occupation is whether a person can apply learning at the workplace. Therefore, the most critical component of learning in artisan development is the workplace component.
Workplace training requires committees to guide and support the workplace training structures or programmes for students to achieve the competency they need. PA
Sam Dubazana
Who is responsible for the training of plumbers?
The plumbing industry and the government authorities need to work together or form committees to develop plumbers.
Our training systems and organisations are not structured in a way that accommodates suggestions and input from all stakeholders in the development of plumbers.
No levels and duration are set for the trainees, for example, the national 7 |
Steps to becoming a Qualified Artisan Programme in South Africa, which was |
supposed to be implemented years ago by the DHET: |
1. |
Career guidance |
2. |
Learner agreement |
3. |
Knowledge component |
4. |
Practical component |
5. |
Workplace component |
6. |
Trade test assessment |
7. |
Quality assurance and certification. |
May 2017 Volume 23 I Number 3