South African construction materials supplier AfriSam says that the company’s ongoing investment in training and development aims to address the lack of technical skills which it says is hampering the construction materials sector.

AfriSam construction materials GM Glenn Johnson asserts that the industry needs strong technical skills at the core of its operational excellence.

The company’s in-house training initiatives include general operational training as well as specific courses such as engineer-in-training, artisan learnerships, trainee works manager and the recently introduced trainee operational managers programme for the ready-mix business unit.  

Johnson explains that the engineer-in-training is a structured training programme for young graduates who have come through AfriSam’s bursary pipeline. Graduates from the programme can then either move into line management or to stay in their chosen technical discipline, be it mechanical or electrical engineering, or a multifunction of the two disciplines.

The trainee works manager programme exposes candidates to critical aspects of works management on aggregate operations, including legal training, blasting certificates, financial management and people management.

The trainee operations manager programme has a specific focus on readymix concrete production, including technical specifications, product application and customer interface. Candidates are also exposed to the financial and operational aspects of the readymix business.

The artisan learnership programme targets both internal and external candidates who have completed a National Qualification Framework course.