Career guide to assist in creating jobs in plastics industry

Industry association Plastics South Africa’s training division plans to create an electronic career guide that will list the available skills and job opportunities in the local plastics industry.

Although the project is still in progress, the aim is to make the information available electronically on the association's website later this year, Plastics SA executive director Anton Hanekom tells Engineering News.

“This project is in line with Plastics SA’s training objective of promoting the career opportunities that exist in the local plastics industry,” he says.

The availability of the information is expected to assist companies that are recruiting and will provide information on the additional skills and the specific qualifications required for each position, as well as offer career guidance for job seekers.

“This initiative is aimed at creating an industry and skills development plan that is quantifiable, measurable and that will create jobs.

“Every profession in the plastics industry will now be linked to its relevant organising framework of occupations, alternative job titles, the various responsibilities associated with that job and the qualifications required for the position,” Hanekom notes.

Priority skills for the plastics industry, as identified by the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority and Plastics SA, include plasticians, setters, mould makers and polymeric fabrication inspectors.

Plasticians are crucial in the manufacturing process, while setters are responsible for setting up the manufacturing equipment.

These priority skills were identified by Merseta’s Plastics Chamber, with the support of Plastics SA, which held a series of regional workshops in Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Gauteng last year to determine future skills needs in the industry and to design an Integrated Qualifications Frame- work – a first for the plastics industry.

The subsectors that were mapped during the workshops were packaging, engineering, industrial rubber, composites, thermoplastic fabrication and recycling.

“The main objective of this initiative was to map the industry to get a clear idea of the occupations that exist, and their details, the skills shortages and job vacancies. From this, a value chain was established for each subsector,” Hanekom states.
Meanwhile, in July last year, Plastics SA, together with the Whisper Boat Building Academy and the Cape Town Boatbuilding and Technology Initiative, began a one-year pilot project to train two groups of 15 deaf students to work with composites.

Merseta signed a memorandum of understanding committing itself to funding the full tuition costs of the 30 students recruited by the project.

Classes for the six-month course consist of theoretical and practical classroom-based training, combined with workplace experience that was presented as individual skills programmes.

The first group of learners graduated at the end of last year and will be issued with a Plastics SA certificate of competence in lamination.

This project will continue this year when another group of 15 deaf students will start their training.
Plastics SA supports the National Skills Development Strategy III that was launched in January last year by the Department of Higher Education and Training.

Hanekom points out that the key driving force behind this strategy is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the local skills development system.

“The strategy places significant emphasis on the relevance, quality and sustainability of skills training programmes to ensure that these impact positively on poverty reduction and the eradication of inequalities,” he adds.

The plastics unit within the Department of Trade and Industry, Plastics SA and other government departments, as well as key stakeholders, facilitated three provincial workshops in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban last year to finalise the draft strategy and action plan for the development of the plastics industry as identified in the National Industrial Policy Framework .

An Industrial Policy Action Plan was also developed to outline key action programmes that will be implemented to achieve the objectives of the NIPF.