The Lesedi Skills Academy (LSA) is the brainchild of a group of highly respected executives in the nuclear industry. Lesedi Nuclear Services, a major shareholder in the academy, is a leading Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) company in the Power Generation industry in Africa.

In a very short space of time, the academy has refined its artisan training programmes to produce a skill level fit for the highest quality and safety standards internationally, in the nuclear and broader energy sector. At specific times, Lesedi Nuclear Services absorbs ‘artisans in training’ into the Nuclear Outage Programme, this attests to the level of training received at Lesedi Skills Academy.

The academy achieves this through its impeccable service record in the energy, industrial and mechanical sectors with over 50 years technical experience. At the point of programme exit, the learners are adequately equipped not only as skilled artisans butinstilled with the global nuclear level of OHS&E; Technical Knowledge and Skills; Human Performance Tools and Foreign Material Exclusion–elements not covered in conventional artisan programmes.

OUR COMMITMENT:

Skills development is critical to the economy: at all levels of employment, one needs to be skilled. Government is aware that skills development in the past was limited to the minority and most people had limited access. Skills development is a critical requirement to allow the majority to enter the formal job market. To further underpin the importance of skills development, President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the Youth Employment Service (YES) programme, which is aimed at improving the dire employment outlook for young job seekers between the ages of 18 and 35, by offering paid work experience and, therefore, inclusion in the economy. The South African business sector had agreed, as part of the YES programme, to partner and create 300 000 internships per year for following three years for unemployed youth.

To date, the academy has trained over 100 learners of whom the majority are residents in Atlantis, 40km north of Cape Town. The skills developed through this programme not only assists the community in Atlantis to tap into opportunities (such as the proposed Atlantis Special Economic Zone), but the Academy has extended its training programme to other industry partners across the country.

OUR BRAND PROMISE:

Our Brand Promise is to up-skill your employed and unemployed learners giving them the knowledge and skills and the edge, to progress in the engineering field. Lesedi Skills Academy aims to bring back the pride in engineering and improving workmanship, as well as promotion opportunities.

TRAINERS:

The training programme is conducted by highly skilled staff with several years of experience in various sectors. Trainers are qualified in their field of experience and are registered Assessors and Moderators with NAMB and the merSETA.

The range and wealth of technical expertise that is offered through the academy ranges from many years garnered by our technical instructors in:

• Gold Mines,
• Maintenance on mills and related equipment (Conveyors. Mills, Pumps, Valves, Piping), and underground conventional mining equipment in the coal mines,
• Hydraulic driven equipment (Coal Cutters, Loaders, shuttle Cars as well as Conveyors, Continues Miners),
• Construction of mines (Overseeing Structural and Pipe Fitting),
• Maintenance fitter on Vanadium Mines,
• Chemical engineering,
• and Koeberg Nuclear Power Station for maintenance and technical artisan instruction.

The depth of our expertise allows our learners to draw on experience from our practical knowledge in Instrumentation with global companies such as Siemens, and ABB at the Eskom Majuba Power Station.