Changing Lives Through Skills Development Partnerships - Business Media MAGS - A leader in industry-related B2B magazines, current, relevant informative content

CSI

Changing Lives Through Skills Development Partnerships

We profile two projects helping grow women’s contributions to the manufacturing sector. By James Francis.

Manufacturing and its related industries make up a considerable part of the South African economy. According to the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic), manufacturing contributes 13 per cent to gross domestic product and employs around 11 per cent of the country’s working population.

These numbers help distinguish South Africa as a manufacturing powerhouse for the continent, which the Brooking Institute predicts could exceed $1-trillion (roughly R15-trillion) by 2025. It is well-positioned to lead the opportunities created by the African Continental Free Trade Area, which went into force in May 2021. Notably, the African Union considers Africa’s manufacturing sector a priority, especially in light of its Agenda 2063.

Yet to match those ambitions, the sector needs to grow. South Africa has a distinct shortage of skills for the sector, notably engineering skills and artisan qualifications, but also skills in areas such as heavy commercial and industrial transport. Women represent an excellent opportunity to fill in those gaps.

Why women? Why not?

“People say to me, ‘but why women, why should we employ women? There are so many men looking for employment, why should we go through the hassle of employing women?’,” says Nicci Scott, chief executive officer of the Commercial Transport Academy (CTA). “But the real question is, ‘why not?’ Why are we choosing to ignore 50 per cent of the population in a position where they are totally capable of performing on par, or if not better, than men?”

Statistics from the dtic reveal that less than a quarter – 24.4 per cent – of women in South Africa hold craft and trade positions in the manufacturing sector. The balance is clearly towards men, who represent 77 per cent of jobs in manufacturing, engineering and related services, according to the National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers (NAACAM).

Some women are interested – there are 2 400 female registered persons and 8 905 female candidate engineer registrations in the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) – but much more can be done to encourage women to join the manufacturing world, such as breaking perceptions that it is only a “dirty” industry and exposing people to successful women in the sector.

“People still have this idea that working in the manufacturing sector means it’s dirty and you’re in overalls, and it’s hot in the foundries and all of that stuff,” says Shivani Singh, commercial director at NAACAM.

The tide can change, though, thanks to the efforts of local skills development and transfer initiatives that target women. We look at two examples. One is an initiative that pursues better Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) curricula to complement the automotive industry, and the second provides direct training to women for high-level transportation skills.

Women in auto manufacturing 

The Automotive sector is one of South Africa’s leading manufacturing sectors. In 2018, Deloitte estimated that the sector directly employed around 110 000 people and contributed 6.8 per cent to GDP – split between 4.3 per cent from manufacturing and 2.5 per cent from retail. According to NAACAM’s Women In Manufacturing Gender Equity And Social Inclusion Research, men represent 66.6 per cent of roles in the sector. However, the proportion of women has grown from 29.8 per cent in 2016 to 33.4 per cent in 2021.

The South African Automotive Masterplan 2035 vision looks toward “a globally competitive and transformed industry that actively contributes to the sustainable development of South Africa’s productive economy, creating prosperity for industry stakeholders and broader society”. Transformation is vital for the sector. Its emphasis on high-value skills prompted the creation of High Gear, an initiative represented by NAACAM, the Department of Higher Education and Training, and TVET colleges, and managed by the International Youth Foundation (IYF). It receives funding from the UK Government’s Skills for Prosperity Programme, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.

“Auto components manufacturing is highly technically complex – every component that goes into a vehicle is safety-critical,” explains Singh. “It’s not like if my shirt buttonhole is fractionally bigger, someone is going to die. But in the auto sector, a mistake means somebody could die. It is extremely technically complex.”

Such precision requires the relevant skills, of which there is a shortage. But there is a disharmony between how people are trained and what the industry needs. High Gear tackles this by helping to connect TVET institutions and auto component manufacturers, using workshops to create consensus. It also provides education kits and workplace exposure to both learners and educators. This is particularly important because, according to High Gear’s research, workplace and career exposure is a powerful way to attract more women into the sector.

“We’ve been working hard to expand workplace exposure opportunities for TVET staff and students,” says Colin Hagans, programme director for High Gear at IYF South Africa. “In that type of work, we strive to ensure there’s equal representation of young women and men participating in those opportunities, or that all female mentors who want to participate in those get equal access.”

Implemented in 2019, High Gear is producing industry engagement opportunities, collaborative sessions between industry people and educators, and education kits that provide the tools of the automotive component trade. It recently launched Yakh’ifuture, a portal where prospective learners can discover career paths in the industry. Yet while its focus is on automotive components, there is great potential to seed other industries with technical and engineering skills, says Singh.

“Our thinking with the work we’re doing is if you can cut it in the auto sector, the other industrial sectors are a lot easier to enter. High Gear is developing a general industrial base that’s going to allow us to unlock other opportunities. Other sectors are closely related to us – rail, defence, maritime – and everybody will tell you the lack of engineering skills is significant in all those areas.”

It is, in fact, very low. The ECSA estimates South Africa has 1 engineer per 3 166 people, compared to 1 to 227 in Brazil and 1 to 543 in Malaysia. High Gear works to address that shortfall with a transformation focus that tackles the industry’s gender imbalance. Likewise, its focus on education standards involving colleges and industry can work well for other sectors.

“We would like to see more industry associations get involved in this type of work and replicate the High Gear model in a way that benefits both their member firms and the future of young South Africans,” says Hagans. “Particularly in ways that strengthen the TVET system and other public education sectors. We would love to collaborate with other industry associations and are eager to start exploring and replicating that with other groups.”

Women hit the road

Transport is not where you might expect to find women. But as the CTA’s CEO, Nicci Scott, noted earlier, why not? Scott experienced the issue first-hand when she ran a niche transport company that, among other things, moved new commercial trucks on behalf of manufacturers. During this time, Scott could see that the industry required more qualified drivers.

“The drivers really needed to be able to handle themselves across multiple gearboxes, engines and technology advancements. We spent a tremendous amount of money, time and effort developing these drivers. We worked with most of the OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] and found that the OEMs got to a point where they want to be able to take a highly skilled and schooled truck driver from you and offer them a job. There is a shortage of skilled and capable truck drivers. Many individuals have acquired their licences legitimately. But they don’t have any training to be able to secure a high-level job.”

These reasons prompted her to launch the CTA to teach people these skills. Then the CTA spearheaded an ambitious project, the Women Inspiring Women to Lead in Transport (WIWIT). This project aims to train over 900 women to qualify as highly-skilled transportation drivers. Since 2021, it has already trained 83 women in Gauteng and recently launched its Western Cape chapter, which is training over 40 more.

According to one of the sponsors, Hollard, women represent a mere 1.2 per cent of the total working driver population in South Africa. WIWIT aims to change that. It provides three distinct programmes: Run With It (business skills), the CTA Excellence Programme (leadership and management skills), and Iron Women (training qualified truck drivers). Other than gaining a code 14 licence with prerequisite experience, the trainees also get instruction in soft skills, says Scott.

“We do a huge amount of soft skills development – they do thirteen soft skills. On top of that, they work on mind and body, and stuff around mindset. We also work on diet and exercise. All the iron women exercise every single day before class at our premises. We look at reasonable and responsible food choices so that they don’t end up with lifestyle diseases and other risks such as depression and HIV. We’re really helping them understand the potential pitfalls in the industry and how to navigate them.”

Women may bring even more to the table than men do. Scott cites research commissioned by the CTA that suggests female truck drivers are better for the bottom lines of transportation companies.

“Data clearly shows that women are performing 72 per cent higher in a number of metrics such as fuel consumption and vehicle wear and tear. In terms of the bottom line, it makes perfect sense to employ a woman. There is a direct bottom-line saving to having women in the business.”

Supported by Hollard Trucking and Volvo Trucks, as well as USAID, WIWIT aims to create a generation of women qualified for high-level truck jobs, and the business and entrepreneurial skills to help make their mark in an insular industry.

“My experience with the transport sector is that it can be a very closed environment, where it’s very much about who your network is,” Scott notes. “Coming in as a new entrant, and being a woman with no background in transport, is one of the most challenging barriers to establishing a business.So WIWIT is not just a skills programme. I think it’s really important that the industry understands that these women are building the hours, experience and
business skills.”

In it together

These initiatives exist because professionals put time and effort into growing their industries in principled and sustainable ways. South Africa faces an unemployment rate of 35.3 per cent, of which women make up the majority. At the same time, the world is in transition – new technologies and manufactured goods require industries to adjust.

Projects such as High Gear and WIWIT look to tackle these problems comprehensively, elevating skills development and emphasising transformation as their core values. Yet it is a collaboration between the initiatives, sponsors, industries, public sector, and educators. When the point came up about South Africa’s many challenges and our pervasive negative outlooks on these, Hagans counters that many people want to make a difference.

“There are lots of committed educators in the system – passionate educators who want young people to succeed. South Africa has so many pieces of the puzzle when you look at the different public institutions and the private sector. What we’re really trying to do is get the puzzle pieces together in a way that creates those connections and a fuller picture that benefits young people and employers. I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom. There are actually a lot of positives in the country. Hopefully, we’re unlocking that.

You might be interested in these articles?

You might be interested in these articles?

Sign-up and receive the Business Media MAGS newsletter OR SA Mining newsletter straight to your inbox.