By Thandisizwe Mgudlwa
Around the September month, Dormac’s first group of learner artisans commenced with their institutional training at Saldanha’s West Coast College, Western Cape province.
The training forms part of the Accelerated Artisan Training Programme (AATP) in welding and concludes with the National Trade Test which, if successfully completed, will result in a trade qualification that is registered and quality assured by merSETA and the Department of Labour.
This AATP programme is part of a strategy put in place by National government to maintain the number of skilled artisans in the country.
Dormac says it has been involved in this project for some time and is one of the top three companies in South Africa with regards to training initiatives having developed 650 artisans in the past four years.
Dormac has been working on bringing the AATP programme to Saldanha for some time to support a strategic objective to increase the oil and gas and marine projects executed in Saldanha.
Imran Allijan, group training manager, says “Dormac is committed to bridging the gaps on the way to trade test and has identified mentors within the programme who will help facilitate the learning process and ensure that the learners are successful. This is an additional investment on the part of Dormac, made in good faith, to maximise the skills availability for future rig related work coming to Saldanha Bay. This initiative included the support from local business and labour forums to encourage this development.”
“The recruitment process took longer than expected due to the number of learners not meeting the entry requirements. However we managed to reach our target of 25 learners,” adds Allijan.