Capacity Building and Skills Transfer

The Challenge
Water services authorities are facing a skills shortage that is hampering their ability to render effective water services delivery.

The Solution
WSSA has an enviable track record in learnerships and skills development programmes. We use RPL (recognition of prior learning) to fast track learning, where required, and our capacity building programmes allow municipalities to develop the resources they require to operate and maintain their water utilities or departments.

Through our training company, Watertek, and in co-operation with ESETA, WSSA has obtained accreditation of its hands-on training programmes, including:

# Adult basic education and training (literacy and numeric)
# Health and safety
# HIV/AIDS and cholera awareness
# Computer applications
# Management
# Operations
# Water and wastewater processes
# Water and wastewater quality monitoring and laboratory
# Electromechanical maintenance
# Plumbing
# Other tertiary studies


Achievements
Recent training initiatives include:

KwaZulu-Natal
Two internal training initiatives were recently undertaken, including two learnerships in the National Certificate: Water and Wastewater Process Operations (NQF Level 2, 136 credits) for 50 learners from the uThungulu District Municipality and uMhlathuze Local Municipality.

This is part of an ongoing follow-on programme, with many learners already having undergone extensive on-the-job training in a range of subjects, including plumbing and pipe laying; safety and chlorine handling; basic water or wastewater treatment processes; process control testing; and operation of dosing systems.

Prisons
WSSA’s involvement on the prison ROMP projects saw 46 qualifying youth learners, as well as a number of the operational staff, selected on the various sites as part of our youth skills training programme. The programme comprises eight unit standards that form part of the qualification Water and Wastewater Process Operations, SAQA ID 58951.

Community-based Organisations
We have been providing training to CBOs to support water service provision in rural areas.

External Training
Watertek provides a number of accredited training programmes to water service providers, including the National Certificate: Water and Wastewater Treatment Process Operations – 19 Bloem Water waterboard operators and Moses Kotane LM, Amatole DM and Platjan operators.