12 unemployed people trained to operate construction plant and equipment

Tjeka Training Matters helped 12 unemployed people in George, Western Cape, acquire construction plant and equipment operating skills.

Notably, six of the learners secured permanent employment positions at various construction companies after they completed their training and one of the top performers was a woman.

None of the participants had previous experience operating construction machinery. They, therefore, had to first obtain a Code 14 license, before they were trained on a front-end loader and a motor grader and sit-on-roller as part of the National Certificate: Construction Plant Operations.

Tjeka undertook the training on behalf of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) of the Department of Transport and Public Works in the Western Cape.

The decision to appoint Tjeka to conduct the training was based on the organisation’s strong track record providing high quality instruction to the South African civil and building industries since 2000. Moreover, it was the only Construction Sector Education Authority-accredited Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) private college for Construction Plant operator in the Western Cape at the time.

The intention of the training was to enable the learners to apply health and safety principles and understand plant operations in the construction environment. This is in addition to performing plant operation-related functions; adhering to plant operation personnel procedures; and understanding the mechanical and leveraging principles to productively and safely operate earthmoving, transport and/or ancillary plant on construction and building sites.

These are in line with the onerous requirements of contractors whose expectations are driving up standards in plant and machinery operations and, in so doing, fuelling the demand for proven competence to nationally recognised standards.

While the training is geared advancing learners across the civil-engineering and building industries to ensure the upliftment of standards in general, these skills can also be deployed in plant hire operations, forestry, materials handling, opencast mining and the earthmoving equipment-manufacturing and supply industries.

The training was provided by Tjeka’s Judy Ann, Andre Jacobs and Derek Jones considering their respective fields of expertise, namely fundamentals, electives, as well as specific core and elective unit standards.