After 18 months of careful research, planning and preparations, the Western Cape Green Foundry Training Centre opened its doors on Friday 20 May at Atlantis Foundries. In his opening address, Nimrod Zalk, deputy director general of the dti said that the launch of the training facility at Atlantis would not only provide sustainable solutions to skills development challenges but also offer quality training that will enable the institution to become a centre of excellence.

“The most recent Industrial Policy Action Plan has identified key impact sectors of the economy that identifies manufacturing in particular as the engine of sustainable economic development” he said. South African manufacturing needs to improve its competitiveness for it to succeed in the global arena. The key to manufacturing competitiveness is for managers and workers to master technologies and deploy them to innovative production processes and services.

“Although mastery of such technologies requires formal theoretical knowledge, the most important part is the tacit knowledge that can only be acquired through learning by doing” he added.

In October 2008 the NFTN, SAIF, UJ MCTS and GTZ Technology Stations Programme (TSP) recognised the capacity and skills problem within the sector as a key challenge for a competitive industry in the long term. These partners supported a process of developing a National Careerpath Framework, which identified the greatest skills gap on shop floor level, however a practical simulation training facility was needed for the framework to be implemented, and the WCIF Green Foundry Training Centre hosted by Atlantis Foundry have become the pilot of such a centre.

“As national government, we extend our gratitude to Atlantis Foundries – as one of the larger-scale industrial foundries in the country – for taking the lead in the establishment of a training centre that will not only cater for their own skills development and training needs but also for the foundry industry in the Western Cape as a whole.” Mr Zalk concluded.

Peter Hommel, managing director of Atlantis Foundry said in his address that he hopes that this concept for a training centre will be the nucleus for many more to follow to close the educational gap the country is facing. “Another hope I have is that one day in the not to far future a student of this facility will be one of my future successors as managing director of Atlantis Foundries.” he added.

The Gauteng Provincial Economic Development Department is providing the NFTN with funds for the commissioning of a feasibility study for a similar training centre in the province, this study is currently underway.

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