Artisans are making South Africa work

The training centre, which has been operational for the last 30 years, has helped to shape the careers of skilled artisans, which is in line with the recent launch of the Decade of the Artisan campaign, by the Department of Higher Education and Training.

“Although being an artisan is not a trade that is presented as an option for many school-leavers, we hope that, by hosting open days such as these, we are able to destigmatise the negative connotations associated with the trade,” explained Mustak Ally, Seifsa Human Capital and Skills Development Executive.

The training centre has also seen an increase in the number of female applicants, which means that the desired transformation of the trade is already underway.

“We’ve seen a number of young ladies apply and it’s pleasing to see that women are no longer seeing this as a male-dominated industry,” added Ally.

The training centre, which has been managed by Gijima since 2004, provides competency-based training in apprenticeships, learnerships, instrumentation courses, basic safety courses as well as multi-skilling of artisans.

It also offers trade test preparation, trade testing on-site and proficiency assessments, as well as customised training.”Countries like Germany were able to find the importance of investing in the artisans of their country, as they realised the value of this trade. They made the jobs look attractive for young people which, in turn, had a positive impact on their unemployment rate and economic growth,” noted Ally.

Apart from the holistic training environment which is provided, other benefits of the centre include merSeta, Chieta and E-Seta accreditation, extensive metal and engineering-related training experience, as well as entry requirement assessments.

“With youth unemployment being at considerably high rates, we hope we can, in some way, assist in tackling that,” Ally added.