The future in your hands: Koffiefontein’s Portable Skills Programme

In October 2009, Petra Diamonds' Koffiefontein mine initiated its highly successful Portable Skills Programme. The programme took place over three weeks and involved training in bricklaying and plumbing. A member of the local community, Victor Moloi, instigated the programme after Petra Diamonds assisted him in improving Koffiefontein's recreational park by providing tables, chairs and ablution facilities.

Providing Petra Diamonds employees with skills that are beyond their everyday work is something Victor deems vitally important: "If you've got a skill, you can do something to help yourself in the future". With this philosophy in mind, local Koffiefontein businesses were contracted and, through an application process, employees were selected to participate in a programme that would grant them practical, transferrable skills.

Josiah Mosime, a maintenance clerk who formed part of the bricklaying team on the programme, describes the initiative as a "marvellous, marvellous experience: what I did not know, I now know; what I could not do, I can now do". Josiah is not only inspired by the skills he has learned, but also empowered. His wife runs an undertaking business and, with the lessons he has learnt through the Portable Skills Programme, he is now able to assist her by making the headstones himself, as opposed to contracting them out. Josiah hopes to perform bricklaying work for Petra in the future; he has applied for a position and a vacancy is awaited.

Herman Niewenhuizen, a storeman for Petra, is equally stimulated by his newly-acquired skills, this time, in plumbing. He feels privileged, he states, being both a storeman and a plumber, and is proud that, at the age of 51, his education remains an investment for the Company at which he works. "Petra Diamonds looks after its workers," he says, "the Portable Skills Programme could not have been a better experience."

Participants who complete the Portable Skills Programme successfully receive a certificate indicating the skill acquired. The 2010 Portable Skills Programme will involve mechanical and electrical training, in addition to bricklaying and plumbing.

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