Structured training for zero defects

Master Builders Association North and Tjeka Training Matters have partnered to provide structured training to the South African building industry.

Tjeka Training Matters is a registered private technical and vocational education and training college that is accredited by the Construction Education Training Authority. It has a 20-year-long track record providing high quality construction training throughout southern Africa.

The partnership will initially offer short 20-day technical skills training courses in the building trades. They include bricklaying, plastering, carpentry, plumbing and painting.

“Tjeka Training Matters continues to build long working relationships with leading industry bodies to bolster training in the South African building and civil-engineering construction industries. Certainly, we are also looking forward to working with the Master Builders Association North, which has many reputable building contractors operating throughout Gauteng, North West, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo as members,” Frans Toua, Chief Executive Officer of Tjeka Training Matters, says.

Led by a team of built-environment professionals, Tjeka Training Matters’ training programmes have been designed to develop a competent workforce that is able to achieve performance goals safely and in a cost-effective manner.

The training provided by the partnership is geared towards achieving zero defects by enabling learners to perform their jobs correctly the first-time round. This is in response to the demands of the members of Master Builders Association North for structured training that addresses the limitations of conventional skills interventions in the industry.

Tjeka Training Matters customises its learnerships, skills programmes and short courses to adequately address company-specific needs. In so doing, clients’ processes and procedures are incorporated into training programmes to align them with unit standards. This approach ensures consistent standards, a better experience, higher quality, and greater safety.

Notably, learners receive support throughout the practical component of their training from competent site managers and mentors, as well as coaches. This, together with the theoretical component, makes up an integrated and comprehensive learning programme.

The partnership between Master Builders Association North and Tjeka Training Matters comes at a time when infrastructure construction has been placed high on government’s agenda as a means of stimulating economic recovery following the severe impact of the Covid-19 outbreak. The focus on social infrastructure, including housing, presents immense opportunity for the South African building industry.

Toua says that companies should now focus on developing a robust pipeline of skills to strengthen the South African building industry.

“Training is more than just enabling employees to perform their jobs well. This is a short-sighted approach that has not helped solve the dire skills shortage that the industry has grappled with for many years. Companies that continue to invest in high quality training improve their competitive edge. Equipped with the correct skills, their workers can solve challenges and are more efficient, boosting productivity and reducing the amount of rework on civil-engineering construction and building contracts. Importantly, it also drives up standards in the industry, while both public- and private-sector client bodies gain from higher quality and improved safety performance of the professional teams working on their projects,” he concludes.

Importantly, training also has a marked positive impact on the morale of a company’s workforce by providing employees an important opportunity to hone their skills and, in so doing, developing long and vibrant careers in the civil-engineering construction and building sectors. “This is a significant benefit of quality training that transcends a focus on merely contributing to the scorecard,” Toua concludes.