Pretoria: 27 February 2017
Contributed by Kwanele Butana (Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Cape Town)
The Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) has teamed up with industry and the College of Cape Town (CCT) to launch a project to boost the skills of marine engineering students.
This flagship project known as the Marine Engineering Workshop Training (MEWT), and accredited by the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA); is intended to provide training to CPUT marine engineering cadets who successfully passed S1 and S2 in 2016. The training will take place prior to their work-integrated learning sea-going phase aboard internationally owned trading vessels.
“The MEWT is a statutory requirement of the SAMSA Code and the International Maritime Organisation’s international convention governing the standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers to which South Africa is a signatory,” says Pieter Coetzer, Training and Development Manager at the South African Maritime Training Authority (SAMTRA).
Participants include CPUT’s Department of Maritime Studies, the CCT, SAMTRA and the Transport Education Training Authority. The students will be trained on, among others; diesel engines, electrical, fitting and turning, hydraulics, pneumatics, sheet metal work and welding for a period of approximately eight months. Mr Coetzer adds that after the training, the student will be required to work on merchant ships for a further 12 months, and obtain an internationally recognized Certificate of Competency issued by SAMSA.
“This will enable them to work in the international shipping arena as Marine Engineers, and earn a tax-free, foreign currency salary,” he says. The programme also ties in with the Government’s Operation Phakisa, an initiative aimed at tapping into the opportunities the ocean’s economy provide.
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