Page 20 - trends in automation 1.2013

South Africa: Practice-oriented training in the water sector
Knowledge provides clarity
Water is the elixir of life and a precious commodity in South Africa. To meet future
requirements for nationwide water supply and wastewater disposal, South Africa
needs more trained personnel. Festo Didactic is helping by providing practical basic
and further education in plant and system operation in a development project.
T he issue of water supply is high on the agenda of the
South African government. The need for improvements
in water supply and quality was referred to by President
Jacob Zuma on 7 April 2012 in his state of the nation
address – and with good reason. According to information from
the Department of Water Affairs in South Africa, the country
needs more than 8,000 qualified workers to make up for short-
comings in the operation and maintenance of South African
water supply and wastewater disposal plants. The challenge is
to achieve efficient operation and sustainable maintenance
of these plants. To meet this challenge, Festo Didactic has devel-
oped specially adapted EduKit PA learning systems for South
Africa in cooperation with the German Agency for International
Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusam-
menarbeit, GIZ). The project is supported by the Federal Ministry
for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Practical training
The project objective is to improve the quantity and quality of
water provision through practice-oriented basic and further
training for the water sector. Yvonne Salazar, Global Training
Business Development at Festo Didactic, explains: “Efficient
basic and further employee training in maintenance, monitoring
and control improves energy efficiency and reduces the operating
costs of plants. These are crucial factors for development based
on the ‘green city’ model.”
Learning through simulated processes
With the support of the Festo national company in Johannesburg,
the University of Pretoria (UP) and The Water Academy (TWA)
in Knysna, training modules for engineers, technicians and
semi-skilled workers are being offered on the expanded EduKit
PA learning systems. The simulation of real processes on the
learning systems is a simple and effective way of ensuring that
newly acquired knowledge is put into practice. Whereas only
‘test-tube experiments’ were possible before, now real influen­
cing factors and their interaction can be mapped and corres­
ponding process knowledge can be communicated. The aim is
to have a minimum of 450 employees qualified to work in the
water sector by the end of the project.
Workshop for roll-out
From 8 to 12 October 2012, the lecturers from UP and TWA as
well as colleagues from Festo were briefed on the use of the
learning systems and training modules in a workshop hosted
by Peter Maurer, water industry expert from the University