The SA Paint Manufacturing Association (SAPMA) and the Chemical Industries Education & Training Authority (CHIETA) have entered ‘an intensified era of cooperation’ to boost skills upliftment in the coatings industry, says Deryck Spence, executive director of SAPMA.
Spence says the renewed commitment by CHIETA to support SAPMA’s training initiatives follows Dr Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education and Training’s keynote address at the Coatings for Africa 2015 conference in Sandton. Dr Nzimande said there was great potential to expand employment in the coatings sector which the Government regarded as a ‘very important’ industrial sector.
“The Minister said training in the industry must be driven by the industry itself where the expertise lay, and that CHIETA should assist in expanding training in the coatings sector,” Spence said.
Acting on the Minister’s directive, CHIETA and SAPMA met on June 29 and a steering committee was elected to clarify training requirements and direct the way forward to a formal indaba.
“SAPMA has, since the inception of its training arm, the SA Paint Industry Paint Institute (SAPITI) in 1987, trained over 7,000 members’ staff at a cost of at least R13 million to the industry – without any government grant for this training. With SAPMA now officially recognised as an ‘Institute of Occupational and Sectoral Excellence’, and the intensified support from CHIETA, we see hope for training in the coatings sector,” Spence stated.
More information from Deryck Spence, Tel:+27(0)11 605 1195/www.sapma.org.za
