24 / 40
22
AFRICAN FUSION
August 2016
Afrox/POPUP welding school
“
D
eveloping skills across in-
dustries will play a key role
in developing South Africa’s
economy and training welding artisans
locallywill increase opportunitieswithin
the country’s workforce,” says Afrox’s
Johan Pieterse.
“As a leading industrial gases and
welding equipment supplier in sub-
Saharan Africa, Afrox is establishing
its first tertiary welding facility as our
contribution to the upliftment of our
unemployed youth and towards the
development of entrepreneurial skills,”
he adds.
Launched in partnership with POP-
UP (People Upliftment Programme), at
the new Community House Building
Training Centre in Soshanguve, South
Africa. The new school has 12 fully
equipped welding bays and is suitable
for training in shieldedmetal arcwelding
(SMAW); gas metal arc welding (GMAW);
tungsten inert gas welding (GTAW); and
oxy-fuel welding and cutting processes.
The aim of the Soshanguve-based
facility is to support various technical
up-skilling programmeswith an empha-
sis onwelding as an in-demand route to
sustainable careers.
Says Pieterse: “Quality training and
development arise from good training
infrastructure. The Afrox team, there-
fore, leaped at the opportunity to build
Welding skills development
Left: The Afrox-sponsored Welder Training Workshop has 12 fully equipped welding bays and is suitable for training in shielded metal arc welding
(SMAW); gas metal arc welding (GMAW); tungsten inert gas welding (GTAW); and oxy-fuel welding and cutting processes. Right: The first programme
was concluded in July and the first 12 trainees have successfully concluded a basic welder training course.
Afrox, in partnershipwith non-profit upliftment organisations,
POPUP, has established and equipped a 12-baywelding school
at the new Sipho Nkozi Community House Building Training
Centre in Soshanguve.
African Fusion
talks to Johan Pieterse
about the development.
a top class training facility to accom-
modate 12 students at a time.
“This will be supported by our skills
development training programmes,
which will contribute towards formal
qualifications. We kicked off the first
programme recently and look forward
to certifying our first trainees in, the
class of 2016.
Afrox has developed a comprehen-
sive set of in-house welder-training
course material in an attempt to better
match the real needs of South African In-
dustry for artisans that have a thorough
grounding in basic welding theory and
the knowledge and ability to produce
consistently high quality welds in prac-
tice. “We are very proud of the quality
of the material we have produced,” Pi-
eterse tells
African Fusion
. “Thematerial
is easy to read and understand and we
have had a very positive response from
thewelding industry about its suitability
and usefulness.
“We intend to pursue CHIETA ac-
creditation for the material and we
hope it will be adopted by other welding
training schools in the future,” he adds.
“Afrox intends to establish continuity by
training instructors and partneringwith
like-minded organisations, such as the
Southern African Institute of Welding
(SAIW), to ensure that we continue to
developwelders trained to international
welding standards, creating jobs across
sub-Saharan Africa.”
Says SAIW executive director, Sean
Blake: “We are acutely aware of the need
for more and better skilled welders in
South Africa. We are therefore happy to
support initiatives such as these, espe-
cially if they create pathways for unem-
ployed people to become accredited to
International (IIW) standards.”
Enhancing local skills is the driver
behind Afrox’s skills development pro-
gramme, which has nowbeen extended
to schools to attract and inform pupils
of the advantages of a technical career
and encourage more young learners to
take welding further at a tertiary level.
As a result, Afrox has partnered with
the Department of Education, support-
ing its Technical School Recap pro-
gramme under Mechanical Technology.
The Afrox-supported strategy is focused
on de-mothballing welding facilities,
equipping themwith advanced technol-
ogy equipment andupskilling educators
to facilitate training.
To date Afrox has upgraded and
equipped 14 technical schools nation-
ally, trainedmore than 40 teachers in the
four main welding processes and com-
municated the importance of technical
skills qualifications at selected launches
in the major provinces.
The People Upliftment
Programme
PeopleUpliftment Programme (POPUP),
is a non-profit organisation with a
holistic approach to the upliftment of
under-privileged communities, render-
ing services to all persons living in Tsh-