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Plastics SA Training Division Upskills And Trains Retrenched Workers With Retrenchment Assistance Programme (RAP)

MyPR: Plastics SA Training Division Upskills And Trains Retrenched Workers With Retrenchment Assistance Programme (RAP):

The Training Division of Plastics SA is one of the Associations within the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector to be awarded a discretionary grant by merSETA to train and upskill retrenched workers from the plastics industry.

“Recent events this past year such as the COVID-19 pandemic, riots and the economic downturn had a devastating impact on companies around the country. Unfortunately, the plastics manufacturing industry was not spared. Many factories were forced to close their doors or scale down their operations, which left many staff members unemployed and without an income. Our focus with the Retrenchment Assistance Programme (RAP) is to make these workers more employable and attractive to future employers by enrolling them in learnerships and skills programmes,” says Kirtida Bhana, Training Executive at Plastics SA.

According to a Memorandum of Agreement signed between Plastics SA and merSETA, 156 learners will be funded to enrol for Learnerships and 84 learners to enrol for Skills Programmes that will be offered at Plastics SA’s regional training offices in Midrand (Gauteng), Maitland (Western Cape) and Pinetown (KwaZulu-Natal). Learners will be equipped with in-demand technical manufacturing skills while they earn stipends for the duration of their training.

“We have already enrolled our first group of learners and the feedback received from them has been fantastic. Most of them have years of workplace experience, but were lacking the academic qualification and certification they needed to advance their careers.

Apart from enjoying being back in circulation and part of the industry again, they are hugely appreciative of the opportunity to gain exposure to new techniques and skills that enhance their resumés and employment prospects,” Kirtida says. All regular learning and assessment processes and procedures are followed to ensure the high quality of training is maintained, although the in-class instruction period has been slightly condensed to allow the learners to re-enter the job market as soon as possible.

“More than ever before, it is imperative that our industry remains competitive in order to ensure its long-term survival. Good technical skills are scarce and people with the correct backgrounds are not easy to find. For this reason, we want to help create a work-force that is well trained, possesses the necessary practical experience and theoretical grounding and has a positive, professional work ethic,” Kirtida stresses.

Enrolment will be on-going over the next three years. Companies interested in registering their retrenched workers, or who are willing to make their workplace available as a training space for learners to gain workplace experience, are encouraged to get in touch with Plastics SA’s Training Division as soon as possible.

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Did you know this about Johannesburg? In 1893 Johannesburg’s first stock exchange was opened. From then until today Johannesburg has been the seat of the South African stock exchange and the country’s financial heartland. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange is presently in Sandton, Johannesburg.

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From Sophiatown to Triomf

By 1963, Sophiatown had been physically razed to the ground. In a final act of psychological warfare, the government built a white working-class suburb over the rubble and named it Triumph (Triomf). They wanted to erase the very memory of Sophiatown from the landscape. For decades, the name Sophiatown disappeared from maps, replaced by the neat, sterile streets of the victors.

The “resurrection” of Sophiatown began officially in 2006, when the City of Johannesburg formally restored the original name to the suburb. Today, the neighborhood is a quiet, leafy residential area, but the ghosts of the “Paris of the Transvaal” are everywhere. The Sophiatown Heritage Centre, housed in the former home of Dr. A.B. Xuma (a former ANC president), is one of the few original buildings that escaped the bulldozers. Walking through the streets today, you can still find small markers of the past: a lone Victorian pillar, a specific tree mentioned in a poem, or the rebuilt St. Joseph’s Church.

The legacy of Sophiatown is not just one of tragedy, but of an indestructible cultural spirit. The music, the slang (Tsotsitaal), and the “Drum” era aesthetic continue to influence South African fashion and film today. It serves as a reminder that while you can bulldoze a house and rename a street, you cannot kill the soul of a place that once danced to the sound of a thousand saxophones.