Over the past three months the Council has once again spent many hours in discussions on education and the new hose safety training material. These two points are key focus areas for SAFPA.
Education
Two of our forthcoming technical meeting presentations will focus on training and the initiative carried out by the Hytec Group through its recruitment of the first batch of students from the JFa2 training college. As you may remember from the last edition of Motion Control, SAFPA requested that the lifespan of the qualification ‘Mechanical Engineering, Level 2, South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), ID Number 59689’ be extended to 31st December 2018 and the last achievement date will be 31st December 2022. Several discussions took place among stakeholders regarding this qualification and its importance to the fluid power industry. Hytec will be hosting the next technical meeting and providing feedback on its endeavours to date. This was an enormous challenge. Early in the new year, JFa2 will be presenting at the February technical meeting. The topic will be The National Qualification – Mechanical Engineering; Fitting Fluid Power.
It took some time for SAFPA to find a training provider to assist the pneumatics and hydraulics industry in training the Fluid Power Fitters required by our industry for the next generation. JFa² Technical Training Institution is accredited by MerSETA for Level 2 in Fitting Fluid Power and is currently in the process of accrediting Level 3.
The pilot project launched with six students in September 2016. Now that all the accreditations and pilot project are out of the way, JFa2 will focus on the way forward to get more students into the fluid power industry. The college cannot do this alone. It needs the assistance of industry in this quest. The presentation will focus on the education of industry in the Workplace Skills Plan. Amongst these are workplace accreditation, grants, assisting the registering of the students on MerSETA’s database and the setting up of contracts between the host employer and the lead employer. It will continue with the learner and the college and the basic administration, PoEs, logbooks, mentors and SDFs, and how the training provider can provide support to industry in this regard.
New hose safety training course
We previously made mention that SAFPA is revising the hose safety course. It is presently being redesigned to include further facets of hydraulic hose assembly, including quality assurance and safe disposal of damaged and replaced hose assemblies in accordance with current legislative requirements. The course will probably be extended from one to two days of training. The first draft was perused recently and we expect that all the material will be completed by year end.
Proposed pressure vessel legislation
Our November technical meeting will focus on this subject. It is important for our industry to be aware of possible changes to legislation which may impact on their business. Latest developments in this regard will be discussed and debated with regard to SANS 347. A detailed report back will be provided at that time.
| Tel: | +27 11 061 5000 |
| Fax: | 086 589 2158 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.safpa.org.za |
| Articles: | More information and articles about SA Fluid Power Association (SAFPA) |
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