In January last year, the Magalies Water Capacity Building Programme was launched.
Seven students across several different disciplines were offered internships for 2014. The positive developmental results and personal feedback from the interns showed that the programme was fulfilling Magalies Water’s commitment to skills development and capacity building. So, it was decided that the programme would be extend to two years and the interns would be retain the interns for a second year.
Infrastructure development is an effective means of creating jobs and developing skills. This programme goes beyond that by mentoring the interns in civil, mechanical and electrical work, and providing daily supervision. Engineering companies and contractors in the capex programme were approached to assist in this regard.
The water supplier supplies water to parts of North West, Limpopo and Gauteng. The long-running internship programme has aided in increasing their ability to meet water demand over a 42 000 km2 area of supply, along with opportunities for accelerated capacity building
The programme uses international best practice standards for mentoring as well as technical, in-service training. It aims to allow for open communication channels between interns, education centres, contractors and service providers and the water supplier itself.
In this way, dynamic skills transfer can take place and provide interns with aptitude in sought-after soft skills.
After a research phase, three learning institutions were selected to build strategic partnerships with to start the programme, including Further Education and Training in Brits (artisan level); Tshwane University of Technology (technician, technologist level); and University of Pretoria (engineer level).