The Civil Engineering Contractor May 2019

POLICYMAKERS No glass ceilings — lots of dry walls Founded in 2003, the Saint-Gobain YouthBuild Academy has been supported by YouthBuild, an international NGO, since 2016. The academy is the only CETA (Construction Education Training Authority) accredited training provider in South Africa that presents the National Certificate: Ceiling & Partition Installation NQF 3. One day a week is spent in the classroom, the rest on practical skills development. On 1 March 2019, the French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, paid a whistle-stop visit to Saint- Gobain South Africa’s premises in Germiston, Gauteng, to see how the building materials producer and engineering firm is developing skills through its Saint-Gobain YouthBuild Academy. The academy’s objective is to bridge the artisan skills gaps and create a pathway into the labour market for disadvantaged youth. In the 16 years since its inception, the academy has graduated more than 1 000 students (including 30 deaf students), with about 80% of the 2018 graduates being placed into employment. Through their complementary expertise, the objective of Saint- Gobain and YouthBuild is to upskill and educate unemployed youth on the theory, practice, and installation of environmentally compliant systems for new and renovated buildings. Students practice their skills by repairing and fixing crèches, schools, and community halls in need. Saint-Gobain provides the ‘hard’ skills and YouthBuild the ‘soft’ skills on behavourial training and job readiness, which together address the social deficit that many underprivileged children face after an upbringing of poverty. Once the academy has selected the students, they are required to achieve competency in 132 credits clustered into four subjects. These include drywall and ceiling installation (safety, tools, and assembly of components); written and oral communication skills; applied mathematics (calculating 4 | CEC May 2019 quantities and costings); and workplace skills like understanding HIV/Aids, first-aid basics, and business plans. The programme runs for 12 months and has capacity to train 100 people a year. With Saint-Gobain as a founding member of the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA), the curriculum also includes training that earns students a Green Star for Contractors certificate. At a presentation for media, Jean-Claude Lasserre, Saint- Gobain CEO for sub-Saharan Africa, said: “The academy is also a means of encouraging the use of more environmentally friendly and affordable building materials such as drywall to save space, and using 50% less water, which assists in making more space available in an affordable house. In Europe, more than 90% of walls are built with drywall, with only the exterior frame being brick.” It is also increasingly being used in high-rise buildings because of its lighter weight. Lots of soft skills and mentoring What makes the programme so successful, is that it includes not just technical construction skills but the soft skills necessary to run a business: marketing; communication; quoting; getting paid; and quality control — which are the particular expertise of YouthBuild. It is a mental toughness programme to prepare graduates to establish their own www.civilsonline.co.za

The Civil Engineering Contractor May 2019 | Page 6