Education & Training

One of Sassda’s core pillars is Education & Training to ensure the upliftment of stainless steel skills in South Africa and across the continent. In a recent interview with Engineering News Sassda Executive Director Michel Basson outlined the association’s current approach to this vital aspect of the work it does…

Q. What is the demand for education and skills development in the local stainless steel industry?

A. For many years, the South African stainless steel industry has identified training and the development of productive and skilled staff as one of the major stumbling blocks to the growth of the industry. It therefore stands to reason that the role of a development association, such as ourselves, is to give the industry access to accredited and meaningful training that will address these hurdles. During the last few years Sassda experienced a large growth in students especially during the pandemic where we innovated and offered far more online offerings, and this continued in 2022.

Q. Which programmes does Sassda offer in this regard? What do they entail?

A. Sassda offers an array of training programs at various technical and academic levels to give access to all levels of staff in organisations. This would start with a short Introduction to Stainless Steel Course that would typically be aimed at administrative staff and complete newcomers to the stainless steel industry. Sassda also offers courses for shopfloor staff at fabricators on handling, storage and fabrication of stainless steel that can even accommodate non-literate staff members. On the more technical and academic level, Sassda presents a Fundamental and an Advanced Course accredited with a CDP rating which cover the metallurgy of the different grades, properties, corrosion mechanisms, Life Cycle Costing, and grade selection of stainless steel. The Advanced Course also offers a Columbus mill visit as part of the curriculum.

Sassda engages past the stainless steel industry to offer CPD-accredited workshops to the architectural, construction, water, and mining industries. To remain as flexible and accessible as possible, Sassda presents these products in person and as an online experience.

Our courses and other training products can be customised and are aimed at educating and empowering people to sustain the growth of the local  industry, but also to give training access to people who normally might be excluded. In so doing, we can add to the individual’s selfworth and that is sometimes is worth more than gold.

Q. How has Sassda recently worked with universities? Why is it beneficial for Sassda to work with tertiary education institutions?

A. As an association, Sassda’s role in education and training is different to that of industry-based institutes when it comes to our relationship with tertiary institutions. In terms of research and technology development, industry institutes play a major role in conjunction with universities. Sassda works with specific universities by presenting our Fundamental and Advanced Courses as part of the curriculum. We also present workshops to architectural departments at universities and technikons as part of technical training and awareness. Sassda also gives inputs regarding industry requirements and the potential future impact on subject material to various entities in higher education. Interestingly, Sassda has also presented to primary school standards as part of technology as a subject.

Q. What are Sassda’s long-term aims for promoting awareness of the importance of the stainless steel industry?

A. Education, training, and technical advice remain critical in spreading awareness and information regarding the material and the industry.  Worldstainless, the international development body, has research showing the relationship between a country’s per capita use of stainless steel and its GDP. The higher the local consumption and use of stainless steel, the higher the GDP. It might not be similarly applicable to South Africa but  increased local use and conversion of stainless steel can create sustainable jobs of around three to five jobs (or even more in some product ranges) per ton.

By creating awareness around the use of local stainless steel cutlery and hollowware we can, for example, annually localise 10 500 tonnes of currently imported stainless steel products. This could equate to between 30 000 and 50 000 potential new and sustainable jobs.