SEIFSA Training Centre -
Changing lives
B
orn 35 years ago in response to South Africa’s demand for skills, which had
come about as a result of economic growth fuelled by the then government’s
ambitious infrastructure development and import replacement projects,
there is no doubt that the SEIFSA Training Centre (STC) has, over the decades,
contributed enormously towards the production of technical skills required
by the country. There is also no doubt that the STC continues to contribute
towards not only narrowing the technical skills gap, but also towards alleviating
the high rates of youth unemployment in the country.
From 1983 - 2017
The SEIFSA Training Centre was established in 1983. It was then known as the
Benoni Training College. In 2004, the Centre’s management was outsourced to
the Federation’s training partner, Gijima, and renamed the Fundi Training Centre.
Through the SEIFSA-Gijima partnership, the training centre became a well-
known brand name in many training circles, with it truly living up to its name. The
partnership also grew the centre to the state-of-the-art training and trade test
centre that it is today.
In 2014, SEIFSA embarked on a journey of rebranding the centre to the SEIFSA
Training Centre. This was in line with the Federation’s three-year strategy
approved by the Board of Directors in February 2014. The rebranding, according
to SEIFSA Chief Executive Officer Kaizer Nyatsumba, was aimed at emphasizing
SEIFSA’s ownership of the Centre as an important resource to its clients.
Currently, the STC provides training to 500 apprentices on average on its
full-time courses per annum and is capable of trade testing approximately six
hundred candidates from the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services
SETA (merSETA) and the Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority
(CHIETA).
In addition to providing apprentice training in boilermaking, fitting, turning, milling,
instrumentation, electronics, pipe fitting, rigging, basic hand and tool skills, and
soldering, among others, the training offered by the Centre also encompasses
the following interventions:
• Learnerships;
• Skills programmes;
• Short courses;
• Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL