SA Affordable Housing September / October 2020 | Page 18

PROFILE
CHIETA (Chemical industries Seta) and QCTO (Quality Council
for Trades and Occupations) for the development of, for
instance, module-based qualifications which will include the
technical sales training, which takes two to three days on our
premises or the members’ premises.”
CATCH-22 WITH SKILLS BANK
“What we have at the moment is unqualified ‘trade painters’
whom we are hoping to list in a Skills Bank that contractors can
draw from, and provide them with work experience, which can
be recognised as RPL, or ‘Recognition of Prior Learning’. At the
same time, our members have over 350 unqualified painters
on their books who have experience but no qualifications.
Bringing this all together is therefore a win-win for the concept
of a Skills Bank.
“Training is as applicable to retail staff as to painters, and
Benn lists another challenge as being the inability of retailers to
release staff from the shop floor to acquire specialist training in
coatings. SAPMA’s response has been to offer more short online
training which staff can do in the shop. This enables them to
cross- and up-sell painting products.
“The challenge stems from the fact that most shop assistants
are generalists in a general hardware store rather than coatings
specialists, and we need to cover both. At the other end of the
spectrum we also need to have more technical training for
people in laboratories, and at this level we have negotiated
with our UK colleagues (British Coatings Federation) to use their
training programme and introduce it into South Africa. This is
a technology qualification, for paint chemists, and has eight
modules, takes four-and-a-half years, and is at university level.
We have adapted this to be more online with an online tutor, as
opposed to contact-based,” says Benn.
“Benn was identified by her predecessor
Spence, who mentored and coached
her into the role over the preceding
year, introducing her to industry and
government leaders. She took up the
SAPMA reins at a critical time.”
This is not ideal, she claims, as South Africa tends to be very
much a face-to-face culture. However, it is the best solution
given the work-time constraints and especially social distancing
requirements post-Covid. “It has its place but it’s not sustainable,
as people want people contact – especially to maintain attention
levels. In the online environment, you don’t have people’s
undivided attention.”
Benn believes the thrust towards 4IR (Fourth Industrial
Revolution) will stall for a few years in terms of automating
jobs, given the global unemployment rate following lockdowns.
“Paint manufacturing plant tends to be at the higher end of
automation already in South Africa by global standards. This is
at least partially because coatings are becoming more important
as an environmental issue and in terms of maintenance of
infrastructure to prevent corrosion and save lives.”
SAPMA
16 SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 SAAffordHousing saaffordablehousingmag SA Affordable Housing www.saaffordablehousing.co.za