Centres of
specialisation
IOPSA has been appointed to act as the occupational team leader,
whereby of the 50 TVET colleges countrywide, only two were shortlisted
and then selected as centres of specialisation for plumbing training.
17
ASSOCIATIONS
IOPSA is calling on
industry members to
join hands to enable
training for apprentices.
By IOPSA
The two selected training colleges are the College of
Cape Town, focused on the Cape Town metropolitan
council area, and Flavius Mareka TVET College, which is
based in Kroonstad. Training in the area of specialisation
within the new occupational qualification — plumbing
— will take place from these two colleges.
This is a pilot project, after which once the blueprint has
been developed to equip the facility with the required
training material and the facilitators have been upskilled, the
facilitators, together with the host employers, will develop a
strong on-the-job-training component too.
The project is due to kick off during January 2019 with 30
students at each campus. It will be an ongoing process with
a new intake every year. This project is funded from the
National Skills Fund’s funding programme and more than
R200-million has been budgeted for this specific project,
which includes 11 other trades such as electrical, welding
and carpentry, brick laying, and motor mechanic. These
are aligned with the National Development Plan’s strategic
objectives to ensure that the infrastructure projects within our
country are supplied with well-equipped and trained artisans.
www.plumbingafrica.co.za
One of the challenges that IOPSA will face is the
securing of on-the-job placement of apprentices.
Historically, IOPSA’s employers took part, taking the lead
in terms of training of apprentices. However, over the
past decade or so, this has changed drastically and as
an industry body, we have to mobilise our employers
to again become a part of this upskilling and training
process within the apprenticeship training programme.
The new terminology used is the dual system. The dual
system is a pilot project whereby the close relationship
between employers, training provider, and students is
implemented and monitored to ensure that the training taking
place at the various facilities is coordinated and focused on
the curriculum.
According to a spokesperson of IOPSA, if an employer is
unable to provide on-the-job-training for the full curriculum, it
will then be IOPSA’s responsibility to monitor, and then rotate,
these apprentices to suitable on-the-job-training opportunities
with employers in their area of specialisation. Between these
employers, the students will then be able to cover all the
required fields of exposure during the training programme. PA
September 2018 Volume 24 I Number 7