Company Announcement - The Zest WEG Group has invested R1.5 million in its 200 m2 training centre at its Johannesburg head office, which employs a full time training officer. Accredited by the relevant Sector Education Training Authority, the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Engineering Council of South Africa, the training centre offers Continuing Professional Development points for its various modules, which have been developed in conjunction with WEG of Brazil.

However, training is a fundamental business imperative that extends far beyond these parameters. It is a vital tool to add value to customers’ business, to keep sales staff apprised of the latest trends and developments and to help nurture the next generation of talented youngsters. About 848 people have passed through the doors of the training centre so far this year, with a total of about 5 500 since it was established six years ago, Louis Meiring, Zest WEG Group CEO, says.

“We started with what we believed were the products most in need of skills development, which was our Automation & Drives division, which comprises a lot of electronic equipment that is more complex than general electric products. It so happened that our initial foray into training was extremely successful,” Meiring says. Part of this success was due to the decision taken by the Zest WEG Group not to charge its customers for such training and to instead regard it as a means of adding value.  “We perceived the need in industry and realised it would be an immensely positive step for us to add value to our end users rather than trying to make a business out of it.”

The training centre has not only been beneficial in terms of customer training, but has evolved into an invaluable internal resource as well. “It helps us align our staff, from sales to technical, administrative and support, in knowing exactly what it is that we do. This means that anyone can assist customers as everyone has a basic understanding of the business.” Meiring stresses that training is not a marketing tool. “We do not use the training as leverage to sell our products or technologies. We rather take the opportunity after the training has been concluded to interact with our customers. The training period is not a sales pitch; it is strictly about adding value. We are very sensitive to that.” Such is the credibility of the training centre that it has even been approached by various professional institutions.

“Supplementary to that we embarked on an initiative to afford our technologists and R&D people the opportunity to address industry about what is going to happen next in terms of product developments and trends. We have gained tremendous value out of that as it often provides feedback in identifying other areas where we need to focus on. It has been a very good source of information on how to adapt our own training, particularly as many customers are so proactive in wanting to develop their own skills and understanding,” says Meiring.

In the 2013 financial year the Zest WEG Group donated in excess of R2 million worth of product to training schools, colleges and other educational institutions. “We have identified strategic areas in the country where the need for such training equipment is the greatest, such as Mpumalanga and North West Province.” The Zest WEG Group also provides bursaries for promising BSc graduates and learnership opportunities for engineering technicians and apprentices. “We commenced with this initiative last year, and are already on our second or third group now. That is going quite well, and we have had some good success in terms of people who have qualified as engineering technicians and artisans. We are looking forward to hopefully our first two BSc engineers as well,” says Meiring.

In terms of expanding the Zest WEG Group’s training initiatives in the future, Meiring says these will be adapted continually in light of the latest innovations. “There are always trends in terms of product development. For example, the latest trend in Europe is for electric motors to be far more efficient than ever. We often find South Africa lagging Europe in this regard. We find that a lot of our customers are not up to speed with international trends, so we have to adapt our training to plug such gaps.”