With more than 700 clients on its books, Fundza Training Institute is well on its way to achieve success on a grand scale.
The company, founded by Maggie Moila, offers SETA-accredited mining safety courses in earthmoving machines, lifting machinery, cranes and counterbalance lifts, among other courses.
The company, which was founded in 2015, counts Anglo American among its clients.
Moila, who has extensive knowledge in financial management, is a registered debt counselor and financial adviser. She is also a qualified and accredited facilitator, assessor and moderator. She is currently the only accredited service provider in Limpopo to run the Micro MBA course.
“Career development took a back seat in the mining sector during the pandemic because Covid-19 restrictions made it hugely difficult to send people for training effectively. Budgets were also strained because of lockdowns, so many mines had to cut back.
“As a result, learnerships and further education and training, as well as community development, were put on hold. This has exacerbated the existing skills shortage, and it has become imperative to bring the focus back once again to mandatory training initiatives and career development pathways,” she says.
Moila adds it has not been easy to break into the industry but believes that with the good team around her, the company is poised to grow further.
She says technology can be helpful in achieving companies’ training objectives with immersive training simulators that can improve safety and learning retention within the mining industry.
“Mineral-rich countries are increasingly promoting local content requirements in their policy and legal frameworks, notably to deliver on the creation of more and better-paid jobs, the promotion of domestic supply chains and the transfer of knowledge, skills and technologies.
In the short term, this is a tactic to move up the value chain. Mining-dependent countries need to transform and diversify their economies, achieve higher living standards and reduce poverty, manage expectations of an increasingly informed population and leave a decent legacy to future generations.”
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