A critical shortage of 50 000 toolmakers is hampering local industry, limiting production to a R6 billion-a-year sector where it has the potential capacity to grow to R20bn by 2014.
The industry faces competitive pressure from China, India and the EU, but parts could be made in this country if skilled workers were available.
According to Bob Williamson, the national president of the Toolmakers Association of SA (Tasa), the skills shortage is partly due to lack of training and partly to emigration by skilled toolmakers. To address this, about 100 groups have joined the Department of Trade and Industry and six provincial governments in a public-private partnership to provide training to US and German standards.
Industrialists claim that the certificates issued by the sector education and training authorities, which have fast-tracked students in a nine-month course, are useless. And they say that Tasa, to which the bosses of engineering firms belong, has established further education and training (FET) colleges in five provinces aimed at producing artisans with a skills level equal to the US’s National Institute of Metalworking Skills qualification.
Williamson said the Western Cape was ahead of the other provinces in which FET colleges had been established, and its college at Wingfield air base was into its second year.
Each college has a principal who was a chief executive of a successful company. Pupils whose primary education is sub-standard are offered a foundation course before they start the Intsimbi programme under the National Tooling Initiative. Those who do not need this go straight into an 18-month skills development course culminating in on-the-job training and the issue of a trade certificate.
After this, Tasa plans to offer more specialised training for managers and engineers at university level, which, according to Williamson, will probably be benchmarked against German standards.
The initiative was launched by Tasa in 2006 and, according to Williamson, the industry and government have invested R180 million in various aspects of the programme. Total investment will exceed R500m by 2015, but much of the time has been spent in planning and negotiating with national and provincial governments.
The government allocated R9bn for training artisans in the Budget this year. The Intsimbi programme will also end the lack of transformation in the tool and die-making industry.
A pilot benchmarking study carried out by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany advised the development of clustering activities between companies in the industry. “There are no joined projects of toolmakers and even mistrust and fighting for customers. Tools can be bought but they cannot be supported, which has a direct input for part production.”
Williamson says clusters are now being formed by some companies.
Sean Jones, a director of black-owned artisan training academy Ifta, says: “Coupled with this drive to churn out more technical skills is the maths and science dilemma where school leavers are not achieving in these subjects… because teaching is poor or non-existent. Urgent attention is required at these foundation levels before the billions are simply pumped in.” - Audrey D’Angelo