GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) has achieved a significant milestone in applying to the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) to become an accredited skills development provider for firefighting training.
When successful, the GRDM will be able to offer training for a national occupational qualification of firefighters, NQF-4.
The QCTO is one of three national quality councils that have the statutory authority to accredit teaching and learning programme providers in the country.
According to GRDM executive manager for corporate services Trix Holtzhausen, the QCTO accredits all occupational programmes from NQF 1 to NQF 8, a role previously performed by Setas but now centralised under the QCTO.
The District Firefighting Training Centre of GRDM was audited and verified by representatives of QCTO on Tuesday 2 August. "This was the first milestone in a series of processes that will allow GRDM to become a nationally, and possibly internationally recognised organisation for its expertise in disaster management, firefighting, law enforcement and traffic control," she said.
The Garden Route Skills Mecca (GRSM) and Training Unit of the GRDM facilitated the accreditation process. Dr Florus Prinsloo, Skills Mecca coordinator, praised the GRDM leadership and staff for their commitment throughout the process.
"This achievement is also a critical step in the process for the construction and running of a modern, sustainable multi-purpose training academy. Funding was already made available by Belgium's Flanders Government, through close collaboration with the National Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment.
The academy will be designed and constructed over the next eighteen months and be located in the Garden Route, said Prinsloo.
According to Holtzhausen, they envisage that the GRDM Training Academy programme qualification mix will include not only accredited firefighting training.
"We will also offer training in wildfire management, veld fire management, law enforcement, traffic control and disaster management. These are all highly specialised knowledge domains in which the municipalities in the Garden Route district have exceptional expertise."
The team of Garden Route Municipality involved in the application process for training accreditation, from left: Dr Florus Prinsloo, Jan Smit of the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations, Deon Stoffels, Trix Holtzhauzen, Johan Brand, Jessica Erasmus, Angeline Naidoo and Brian Afrikaner.
Discussions with NMU
Discussions are also taking place between the GRDM Skills Mecca team and the Nelson Mandela University George Campus to see how these programmes can be aligned to the existing veld fire management programmes offered at the university.
This will allow for significant sharing of expertise and resources between the two partners and provide career development opportunities for many employed and unemployed persons in the Garden Route.
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