Tjeka Training Matters is set to start training and undertaking trade testing at a new state-of-the-art facility that is being developed in Fisantekraal, Western Cape.

Tjeka Training Matters is a leading registered private Technical and Vocational Education and Training college that is accredited by the Construction Education Training Authority and Quality Council for Trades and Occupations.

When it starts operation in October 2020, the 1128m² facility will be able to undertake between 16 and 25 trade tests a month to enable students to qualify as tradesmen and register with the Building Industry Bargaining Council.

This facility was developed in response to the growing backlog in trade testing facilities in the Western Cape that has delayed people from earning artisan rates by up to three months.

Tjeka’s Gawie Burger says that the second phase of this development will entail expanding the facility by a further 380m² and equipping it to undertake trade testing for all civil-engineering construction-related trades that will soon be registered with the Quality Council for Trades and Occupation.

“To date, only building-related trades required a test at the end of the training programme. This facility is, therefore, the only one in the country that has been developed with an initial intention of meeting these new exacting requirements that will significantly benefit the civil-engineering construction industry,” Burger says.

In line with Tjeka’s high training and trade-testing standards, each trade will feature its own workshop with a classroom; a tool store; ablution facilities and a changeroom; as well as a courtroom/rest area. As standalone, self-sufficient operations, they provide the ideal environment for trade testing operations.

Tjeka’s Durbanville administrative and instruction teams will be stationed at the new facility.

Combined, these instructors have about 160 years of construction training experience. This includes in all building-related trades, such as carpentry, bricklaying, plastering, plumbing and painting, and civils-related trades and learnerships, counting roadworker levels 2 and 3.

These are augmented by Tjeka’s experience providing quality foreman and health and safety training programmes and learnerships for leading participants in the South African construction industry.

Tjeka will lease the facility from Garden Cities/Pinelands Development Cooperation as part of an arrangement that was facilitated by the Master Builders Association.

As part of this agreement, Tjeka will provide free training programmes once a month for Garden Cities/Pinelands Development Cooperation’s sub-contractors and workers – a mutually beneficial arrangement for both organisations.

The new facility is also strategically located to provide both training and trade-testing for other building projects in-and-around Fisantekraal and the Western Cape.

This includes a private university that is being developed by Stadio Holdings within two kilometres of the training and testing facility.

“Certainly, we are looking very forward to honouring this commitment to Garden Cities/Pinelands Development Cooperation, as well as providing high quality training and trade testing services to other participants in the Western Cape building and civil-construction industries,” Burger concludes.