WATCH: Shongweni community to participate in construction

THE eThekwini Municipality has welcomed the Westown Training Centre on the site of Westown Shongweni. The newly launched training centre by the Westown Foundation, in collaboration with Stefanutti Stocks Academy, is set to focus on skills development, education and literacy. According to the foundations involved, this will foster the participation of the Shongweni community in the construction of the Westown Development.

When officially opening the centre, eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said he was delighted to learn that the development is already serving the purpose it was intended for. “We want to see the community fully participate in building and constructing this development. We are delighted that the investments in eThekwini are continuing to come, and we are looking forward to ensuring that local communities fully participate in all the economic activities that will be taking place here. As a City, we continue to collaborate with businesses, and we have made a call out of this intervention that we want to see all other projects transfer skills,” said Kaunda.

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With 15 people per intake, the training centre, for the next two years, will provide training opportunities to help the trainees accumulate knowledge, gain experience, increase their employability, and be CETA certified in certain specific construction skills. These include Construction Hand Tools, Safety Awareness, Brick Work, Plaster, Painting, Basic Concrete, Reinforcing and Formwork training. A construction-plant simulator, equipped with a variety of modules for operator training and staffed by various qualified trainers, will give trainees a sense of life ‘on the job’.

Sean Bergsma, chairperson of The Westown Foundation said, “The Outer-West has lagged behind many of the province’s regions in terms of development, investment and growth opportunities, and the Westown Foundation has been set up to facilitate and amplify local socio-economic opportunities that the development of Westown will create in the surrounding communities.”

It is anticipated that over the two-year period, 60 to 80 operators will qualify, and around 500 people will pass through the Academy, equipped with the relevant skills to find work in the construction sector within the province, some of which will be at Westown.

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Matthew Horwill, managing director of Stefanutti Stocks Coastal Civils Discipline, said their group offers development opportunities to individuals from the community even if they are not directly employed on the project/s they are working on. “Our community-operator training will create capacity beyond the project’s requirement, thus contributing to a provincial pool of accredited, local, surface-machinery operators who are able to offer an accredited skill when seeking employment on other developments and construction sites across the province.”

Furthermore, the launch of the Westown Training Centre sees the roll-out of two key bookend projects for the Westown Foundation – education at one end and job creation at the other. Working in conjunction with The Learn Project, The Westown Foundation will fund the installation of Book Corners (reading spaces) in a primary school in each of the two wards in which Westown is located. “Literacy is not just about the joy of being able to access a world of stories and imagination; it builds the foundation for critical thinking and problem solving that, in turn, develops empowered communities,” said Cara Reilly, Westown Place marketing and communications executive.

“The launch of the Westown Training Centre is the first of many socio-economic and community development projects the Westown Foundation will be involved in over the coming years, and we want to ensure that each of them has a meaningful and lasting impact. This is why we have started this journey with partners like the Stefanutti Stocks Academy and The Learn Project, which have proven track records of good planning and long-term success,” concluded Carlos Correia, CEO of Fundamentum Dev Co (FDC).

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