In December 2007 SAFPA received the good news that the Fluid Power Qualification at NQF levels 3, 4 and 5 had been registered by SAQA (South African Qualifications Authority).
Unfortunately there has been a hold up with the registration of the all-important NQF level 2. The reason for this hold up is that the level 2 section has been merged into the level 2 section of the 'General mechanical artisan' qualification. This change was only decided upon late in 2007 and therefore was not able to be handled in the registration meeting at year end. We are led to believe that level 2 will be registered in April 2008.
The inclusion of the NQF level 2 section into the 'General artisan' category means that any person who is embarking on a mechanical engineering artisan career completes the same first stage at level 2 and then from there can make a selection of different speciality career paths to follow, one of them being fluid power. I believe that this is a positive step and will benefit the industry in the long run.
With registration now having taken place the ball has been firmly pushed back into the SAFPA court. It is now time to put all the structures and systems in place to facilitate the correct implementation of the qualification in industry. This has to be done as quickly as possible. A 'To do' list has been drawn up with a tight timeline and we trust that with the assistance of MERSETA we can complete all the tasks in the next six months.
A summary of what has to be done is as follows:
* A visit to MERSETA to discuss the registration of training providers, assessors and moderators, and the proposed role of SAFPA in the moderating and reviewing process. (There are currently 11 people in the industry who have attended and completed the assessors' course).
* The new unit standards that have been written by the SGG require specific training and assessment guidelines. A meeting is to be organised with the SGG to review these guidelines and have them ready for presentation to MERSETA and industry.
* The moderation process has to be put in place using the SAFPA umbrella as the overriding committee when it comes to quality assurance of the whole qualification and training process.
* Registration of all the assessors, moderators and training providers.
Over the last few weeks, and at the January SAFPA meeting, I have heard the remarks that our companies are busy but we cannot find good people. The Fluid Power industry is competing with many other industries that have the same problem and this can only be resolved by doing something about it ourselves.
I believe that SAFPA is one of the few industry associations that has achieved the milestone of having its own qualification registered on the government database. This qualification now has to be used and marketed effectively and SAFPA trusts that all its member companies as well as end users of fluid power products will come to the party and assist us in achieving this. An amazing industry achievement would be to have a sponsored hydraulic training school bringing through skilled fluid power engineers who can eventually be placed in positions in member companies.
There have been many people who have given much of their busy lives to assist in getting the qualification to this stage and SAFPA would like to take this opportunity of thanking them for their vision in seeing the importance of this project. They have all given their services without compensation or reward.
SAFPA will be giving a presentation on the subject of training on Thursday 6 March, 2008. Should anyone wish to be involved in the SGG meeting or wish to assist in any way with the process of registration and implementation, please contact SAFPA.
May 2008 be the year that Fluid Power begins a new journey in training.
Russell Gill: SAFPA council member
| 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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