ELECTRICAL AND PLUMBING VIRTUAL AND BLENDED TRAINING FOR LOCAL TRAINERS

1 June 2021

Altogether 16 trainers from local public and private training institutions are participating in a training course at the NTA Village Hall aimed at enabling them to conduct virtual or distance learning in both the Plumbing and Electrical trades.

Acting Manager: Registration, Monitoring and Support, Francois Strauss and Senior Expert: Training Provider Support, Alpheas Shindi facilitate the upskilling initiative and are joined by experts from a South African training provider, FOSH.

Virtual and Blended Training for Electrical and Plumbing, also known by its acronym, VABTEP, covers a wide array of topics. Participants are introduced to virtual training and the technologies and methodologies used, whereas they are also exposed to different software and applications.

“In essence, we train them how best to combine the virtual environment with the workshop environment. The training course also integrates electrician/plumbing course development, to the extent that each trade does not only understand its own processes, but also those of the other trade’, Strauss explained.

The VABTEP course encourages a good combination of theory and practice. Furthermore, participants switch between the role of a facilitator and learner. “This allows for situated project-based learning from both angles. A participant will therefore either be in the role of a facilitator to their peers, or fall into the role of a learner themselves, being taught by their peers in expert fields different to their own”, Strauss added.

On his part, Shindi, who is a consultant under the GIZ-funded Promotion of Vocational Education and Training (ProVET) Project, emphasised the need for training courses to keep track with new tools for information sharing and knowledge creation.

“The transition from analogue to digital practices is changing what training looks like. The role of a trainer is accordingly changing from content delivery to that of content facilitation. As such, trainers will increasingly have to focus on creating conditions for exploring, rather than merely providing ready-made knowledge”, Shindi stressed.