Government has neglected its duties to business, SA Paint Manufacturing Association claims. The SA Paint Manufacturing Association’s Centre of Excellence, opened in June 2013 to much acclaim as the solution to the shortage of skills training in the coatings sector, is facing closure as a result of government and industry apathy.

This is the view of Deryck Spence, executive director of SAPMA, who says “only a miracle” could now save the training facility in Springs which offered the first practical training for SA paint applicators in more than two decades. “SAPMA will probably have to shut the Centre of Excellence this year still. It is inconceivable – but a reality we have to face,” Spence stated.

He says the reasons for the impending closure of the facility are:

• Government’s inability, despite the training levy paid to it by the industry, to introduce training for applicators. “Government is simply not prepared to subsidise industry to undertake training that is vitally needed,” Spence laments;
• The apathy of paint contractors as far as training is concerned and their abysmal reluctance to improve service to business and the public by training their applicators and taking responsibility for low competency levels; and
• The lack of realisation by Government that because of the lack of the training in the construction and allied industries, the “five point infrastructure plan” on which the Government is basing South Africa’s economic recovery, is doomed to fail because of the shortage of skills in the construction industry.

Spence adds: “Government should stop just talking about ‘partnerships between Government and Business’ and realise that the only way to achieve growth of skills and apprenticeships is by empowering the business sector to train the people it needs, and giving them work experience. Government should stop meddling in the affairs of business and allow the business sector to come to the rescue by making training a reality.”