MechChem Africa November 2018

⎪ Cover story ⎪

transferable skills

Above: 16 new apprentices were taken on in October, eight on Mechanical Fitter and eight on Metal Machinist (milling and turning) apprenticeships. Left: “Apprentices can only develop a skill if they are allowed to practise, make mistakes under supervision and retry until they get it right. Practise makes perfect!” Bouwer believes.

criteria of grade 12 with maths and science or N3 with maths and science. Those that met all the criteriawere put through aDover battery test to determine their aptitudewith regards to themechanical trades. The top 30 students were invited to participate in a six- weeks evaluation and selection programme. “It is critical to select people with the practi- cal potential and aptitude to function in the workshop environment,” Potgieter explains. “As we are a German company, once we get QCTO accreditation, we aim to couple the apprenticeship with the German quali- fications,” Bouwer continues. “Through TUV, our apprentices will receive an additional Germanequivalentqualification–andthetwo curricula have already been aligned,” he says. “We are using the standardGermanwork- pieces, which are more complex and better represent real work requirements than those typically used here. We have also adopted a project from the Brazilian programme: every apprenticewill be required tobuild a30-com- ponentmodel of amanually operated cement mixer that is fabricated frompartsbuilt during every stage of the programme, from basic to advanced levels,” says Potgieter. From a work related practical perspec- tive, Bouwer notes a host of typical products manufacturedby the thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions ServiceCentre inChloorkop: “Over there is a bogey wheel for the stackers we have sold to one of our mining customers,”

he points out. “We are locally manufacturing all the bogies for the stackers sold to this company. “And while we have long been doing manufacturing and refurbishment work for our HPGR (high pressure grind roll) crushers here: disassembling and remanufacturing the studded grind rollers, for example, themate- rials handling side of the business is relatively new to us. With the merger, though, localisa- tionhas increased significantlyanda lot of the parts that used to be imported fromoverseas service providers andmanufacturers are now manufactured at this service centre,” he says He cites slipper pads for the verybig grind- ing mills as an example. “These are actually white metal bearing pads that run on an oil film. An oil port in the centre of the pad forces oil into and between the pad and the rotating mill bearing surfaces. Under pressure, the oil lifts themill andcreates afilmof oil overwhich the mill can rotate,” Bouwer explains, adding that learning howtomill highly accurate com- ponents such as these gives Metal Machinist apprentices the necessary skills needed for long and fruitful careers. In addition to apprenticeship training, the thyssenkrupp Training Academy also of- fers customer training on best maintenance and repair practises for all of its equipment: stackers, reclaimers and drum reclaimer, HPGRs, conveyors, crushers, ship loaders and much more.

“We have established a schedule of cours- es across the year, each specific to amachine, whichhelpsmaintenanceprofessionals toop- timise site operations that use thyssenkrupp equipment,” says Bouwer. Generally limited to four to five days, as soon as possible after the training customers are taken onsite to unpack the knowledge gained and to make it real. “We strive to help operators and maintenance personnel to un- derstand changeout andmaintenance proce- dures and to develop a feel for the diagnostic side. You will be amazed at how much a walk around our equipment with a specialist can reveal about how well or badly maintenance practices are being applied,” he notes. “This new training academy strives to offer good quality training that results in transferable skills. We want to make 100% sure that when an artisan or customer leaves one of our courses or apprenticeships, they take with them the essential skills needed for their trade. “For people to become artisans, theymust start with a natural feel for mechanics. But most critically, they need knowledge and real work experience so they can develop the transferable skills that are desperately needed on all of our industrial sites. “By teaching themhowtouse their natural talent properly, they will develop skills sets that can be used for a lifetime on a host of different applications,” Bouwer concludes. q

November 2018 • MechChem Africa ¦ 5