Capital Equipment News December 2023

The PPC Sure Academy is building skills for Africa South Africa continues to grapple with an acute employment crisis. As of September 2023, more than 31.9% of the employable population remained unemployed. Worryingly, this stark figure doesn’t account for the millions of people who are underemployed, unemployable, or reliant on social welfare - mostly due to a mismatch of available skills with industry requirements. The widening skills gap is being fuelled not just by rapid technological advance ments, but also by years of deindustri alisation, which has resulted in a sharp decline in jobs within the manufacturing and mining sectors, both areas on which job creation efforts have historically been highly dependent. As the government pursues structural reforms aimed at boosting global competi tiveness, there’s a compelling need to simul taneously overhaul the country’s approach to education and skills development. According to Elisha Sirkissoon, Lead Tal ent and Organisation Development for PPC Africa, this is a challenge that is too vast for the government to tackle alone. She argues that the private sector also has to step in and play a pivotal role. “Companies need to WSP’s micro-tunnelling project breaks new ground WSP’s project, which entails the planning, design and construction monitoring services for the Farm 694 development is set to bring significant benefits to Mitchell’s Plain communities. The project is intended to support the Western Cape Government Department of Infrastructure’s plan to develop several housing opportunities for the Kosovo Informal Settlement in the surrounding area. It will also support several other planned developments, as well as the densification of the Mitchell’s Plain area. The Farm 694 project is the first phase of the ambitious upgrade and will enable the de-densification of the larger Kosovo Informal Settlement. Owing to the project’s proximity to ex isting services and roads, WSP decided to utilise the contractor’s (Power Smart JV) alternative tender offer. The alternative tender proposed micro-tunnelling by the specialist sub-contractor CSV Construc tion (Pty) Ltd, as opposed to open-trench excavation to minimise disruptions to the project and surrounding community. The project is significant for two reasons. Firstly, it has been minimally

disruptive to local communities, due to the implementation of micro-tunnelling. While most projects of this class would have required conventional, open, and deep excavation, micro-tunnelling enables limited excavation along the pipeline route instead. This is important, explains Du Toit Carstens, Technical Director: WSP in Afri ca Civils, as conventional excavation (up to 8 metres deep) would have posed major safety risks for both construction person nel and the public. “The project is located within an exist ing developed area and the full extent of the pipeline is situated within an existing 4 metre servitude and existing Class 3 arterial road. Conventional construction methods would have substantially im pacted the surrounding community. Apart from major traffic disruptions, several open spaces, including parks and schools, would have had to be closed for the dura tion of the construction period for safety reasons,” Carstens elaborates. Another reason why the project is notable is because it has the distinction of being the longest length of the pipeline and the biggest diameter pipeline to be constructed within South Africa using the micro-tunnelling method.

A part of the new micro-tunnel.

WSP was appointed to this project by the Western Cape Government’s former Department of Human Settlements in September 2018 as a joint venture (JV), whereby WSP was appointed for the planning, detailed design, and construc tion monitoring services; whilst MPAMOT was appointed for construction monitoring and the contract administration services for the bulk sewer and water services upgrade. b

go beyond sporadic training and ad-hoc educational support, they need to also make significant, strategic investments in skills training and education as an in tegral part of their organisation al development and sustainabili South Africa’s leading supplier of cement and related products, has taken proactive steps to act on this belief. Through its PPC Sure Academy, the company has ty plans,” says Sirkissoon. She points out that PPC,

embarked on comprehensive skills development and leader ship development programmes, delivering on its own people development commitments and its broader social and economic responsibilities. The PPC Sure Academy was born out of PPC’s organisational change framework, Jabali, which was launched in early 2021. Jabali aims to focus employees on being a purpose-led, performance-driven company, based on the understanding that a thriving business and a thriving society are inextrica bly linked. Since its official launch in the first quarter of 2022, the outcomes achieved by the PPC Sure Academy have been nothing short

Some of the PPC Sure Academy students.

of transformative building on the many successes of the long-standing Technical Skills Centre (TSC) Starting with leadership development courses, facilitated through strategic partnerships with the University of Stellenbosch and Dyna, the Sure Academy quickly broadened its offerings. Curriculum additions included a Graduate Development Program, a Bursary Scheme for children of non-management employees, and a specialised Executive Coaching Programme to address immediate skills gaps within the organisation. b

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CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS DECEMBER 2023