Federal Ministry for Development funds three-year training project
If you wanted to drive to Richards Bay in South Africa, you could reckon with 183 hours in the car and even by plane, it takes about 18 hours. But for the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Kreishandwerkerschaft (KH) Steinfurt-Warendorf district trades association, Frank Tischner, and Karin Münstermann, head of International Training at KH Service Wirtschafts GmbH, their journey has taken more than two years.
Their first contact with the town came through Godfrey Marange, who was part of a delegation visiting the trades association’s training workshop. After being shown around, the delegation quickly came to the conclusion that they wanted to set up a similar training system in South Africa. For the South Africans, the trades association was just the right partner for this kind of endeavour.
Now, the first milestone for the project has been achieved. Notification on funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development for a three-year vocational training partnership with Umfolozi College in Richards Bay, South Africa has just landed on the doormat.
"We won the ministry over thanks to decades of proven capability in vocational training for young people and adults, our successful dual training programme and our concept for transferring this knowhow to South Africa," said a beaming Frank Tischner.
But he's not about to sit on his laurels: clearly the real work for his trade association and the dedicated experts in Richards Bay is just about to begin.
At present, the ministry is funding 29 training partnerships, with this support managed by Germany industry's development agency, "sequa".
Only a handful of new partnerships were approved last year, one of which was that of the Kreishandwerkerschaft Steinfurt-Warendorf. Cooperation between German industry associations and their vocational training workshops and similar organisations in developing countries or emerging economies is intended to lead to sustainable development in those countries, and to reduce unemployment and poverty.
The trades association's new partner, Umfolozi College, is in the town of Richards Bay, which has a population of around 60,000 and lies on the Indian Ocean, in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal.
"The main thing we want to achieve through this vocational training partnership is to improve the general situation for medium-sized enterprises and the vocational training systems in the province," explained CEO Mr. Tischner, who has had the opportunities to meet the stakeholders on the ground, as part of the ministry's fact finding mission.
In addition to long-term experts, during the course of the project, experts will also be deployed in South Africa on a temporary basis. From the other side, staff from the college will come to the trades association's training centre to take part in courses.
Karin Münstermann gave details of the other tasks being undertaken by the partnership: "During this project, the initial and further training schemes run at the college will be expanded, in particular in the construction and renovation sector. The main idea is to redesign the courses to be more practical and demand-oriented. Among other things, this is going to involve closer cooperation with the private sector in South Africa."
Frank Tischner added, "As a business association with around 2500 members from the trades, we have a great deal of experience to draw upon."
The trades association's main objective from 1st November for the next three years is "to future-proof vocational training in Münsterland and in the province of KwaZulu-Natal".
Once the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Develeopment has been able to assess how far the objectives have been achieved, the project could be approved for an additional three years.
"We're going to re-calibrate our work in the future, but without losing sight of the importance of our regional approach. It's going to be a bit of a balancing act, but I'm sure that members, staff and network partners will benefit from our approach," said Frank Tischner.
"At the end of the day, our international activities will be able to raise the profile of trades and the trades association in terms of vocational training and place it in a different, more global light. It should generate more appreciation here in Germany for what we like to refer to as the "industrial powerhouse next door."