No answers or assistance from CETA for 5-year certification delay.

Why must an accredited training provider resort to legal action for CETA to print learners’ certificates?CAD4ALL was founded in 2008 and embarked by selling a new alternative CAD & BIM Software which is developed in Greece, this software provided a solution in 2008 to the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) industry in South Africa which is still on the increase today. After adding value to so many clients in the AEC Corporate space, the dire need was made apparent by industry for CAD4ALL to apply for training accreditation so that the companies can benefit from the SDL funds they are paying monthly to the CETA.CAD4ALL applied for accreditation to CETA in 2012 and was granted full accreditation in late 2013. The 2014 academic year immediately led off with a class of enthusiastic, private students and we were too awarded a DG (discretionary grant) learnership project funded by CETA, in which we had to pay the learners a monthly stipend for 12 months.

From the outset this engagement with CETA was disconcerting if not horrific.

Dealing with the construction CETA from then until current has been nothing short of disastrous leading to consequences of catastrophic devastation. The incompetence and poorly led CETA as our ETQA, has caused us too many an embarrassment, negative association and presents itself as a rhetoric of smokescreen and mirrors to the public not familiar with the qualifications of Architecture, CAD and Draughting. An injustice to the very industry they are supposed to service.The CAD4ALL experience will be outlined and this intentionally will unveil the magnitude of how inefficient and discriminatory this ETQA, CETA is.

By early 2017, CAD4ALL still received ZERO certificates from CETA since 2014, as well as no accreditation site visits, no JPMT meetings, continuous loss of documentation and procrastination all the while we sent ongoing communication which went ignored. This ignorance resulted in addition to a physical visit to the CETA head office in Midrand, JHB to Robert Semenya who was the acting CEO whom CAD4ALL was scheduled to and met in January 2018.In a nutshell, because we received no positive response to the delayed certificates, no re-accreditation visits for renewals of certain qualifications, failed DG projects and outstanding funds owed to CAD4ALL the necessary action was pursued. The pressure was on to meet and fly up on the 31 January 2018, and I travelled once again to Johannesburg and met with acting CEO of CETA, Mr Robert Semenya on the 31 January 2018. Robert was assigned to handle our meeting.CAD4ALL detailed ALL the damaging issues we were experiencing with CETA for the years prior and he promised to prioritise, and have it all sorted in 60 days. CAD4ALL is in possession of Roberts email that confirms all the items that we discussed on the 31 January 2018 and his reproach to it. Shockingly up until this point,19 months later, he has made unkept promises to CAD4ALL, his stakeholder.

Robert only responded under duress to meet in Cape Town in July 2019 when we had our attorneys send him a Letter of Demand. He conveniently orchestrated to meet as he was in Cape Town to attend a budget speech for the SETA’s, yet his contingencies were fruitless and only worsened in my opinion, his lack of credibility by virtue. The solution he offered and we at the time thought favourable, was to engage with acting COO, Innocent Ngezi which untimely dawdled on issues and was no asset in any manner. His procrastination and severe lack of understanding meant there again was NO progress. This means that another chunk is added to the 5 years, of CETA doing nothing.

After CAD4ALL has invested so much over the years and being so advanced and long in an industry like this, it will be shameful not to expose the negative effects the CETA has had on our business and the AEC industry with our related qualifications.

This incompetency and insufficiency of support is a skills disaster and a playball with learner careers. There is a massive trail indicative of how over the consecutive years, CETA continuously paid us and learners’ months late resulting in them leaving the projects and losing out on other opportunities. CETA’s actions are repetitive with other training providers in the past and is in direct contradiction of current CETA, acting CEO Mr Robert Semenya, utterances he expressed in the newspaper article of 22 February 2018 Knowledgeable ETQA’s understand the importance of co-operation with their stakeholder so that a progressive relationship will be fostered to ensure a seamless flow of skilled individuals. The very industry CAD4ALL services with integrity and recognition in its private capacity.

Many individuals now from these impoverished communities will now lose the opportunity to capitalise on this scarce and critical skill.

Construction CETA is light years behind the other SETAS resulting in an obsolete and dysfunctional operation.Mr Robert Semenya and CETA and their interaction with CAD4ALL over this drawn out period effectively subverts the objectives initiated by the Skills Development Act of 1998.

CAD4ALL has an esteemed reputation and a positive brand image in industry that was built over the years but our continued alliance with CETA incompetence has thus caused irreversible damage and unwanted chaos. This public negativity, lack of accountability and downward spiral created by CETA was the trigger point to activate migration.CAD4ALL has evolved to a level that has changed the playing field in industry and for this very reason we have a clearer view of what the future of this critical and scarce skill will look like.

Our vision will be unattainable if CETA remains our ETQA of choice so strategically CAD4ALL positioned itself to vigorously migrate to DHET where our value proposition will be enabled more effectively with subject matter experts.CAD4ALL was recently nominated and selected in the top ten as a finalist in a national design competition where our competitors derived from top universities and institutions in SA. CAD4ALL’s passion in education is displayed in the many accolades it receives and it will not be tarnished or dominated by an inept, substandard Construction CETA.

Please email cad4all on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

South Africa has a shortage of good Baristas. That’s why The Daily Buzz, which operates 12 coffee bars in corporate locations across Gauteng and an in-house coffee roastery, Craft Coffee, has launched the first South African developed and fully SETA accredited Barista training academy in Newtown, Johannesburg, this month (July).  

Craft Coffee, one of the premier artisan roasteries in South Africa, is headed by 2013 South African and All Africa Barista champion, Lovejoy Chirambasukwa, and has been an integral part of the unique blend that has made The Daily Buzz a huge success.  

Now, according to CEO, Andrew Brown, it will share another secret ingredient with the broader coffee community and help solve a critical problem – a shortage of Baristas.  

“South Africa’s biggest problem is unemployment. But every new coffee bar needs at least five new Baristas!  So we want to improve the quality of baristas’ skills, employ more people and improve their earning ability,” he points out. 

He says that the company’s Baristas have been the key to its success with both technical expertise and customer engagement being paramount.  “Taking pride in the smallest detail, such as knowing repeat customers by name, has been a key differentiator for our business.  We have proved the value of extensive investment in staff training and educate our staff as meticulously as we choose our coffee. There is very little they don't know about great coffee and excellent service,” he says.  

Already eight new students are en route to obtaining an NQF3 skills programme. 

The course was developed by the Craft Coffee team with the help of the SETA recognised specialists at THRIVE.   

After formal lectures in the classroom, trainee Baristas complete workplace assignments and present their ‘portfolios of evidence’ to the coffee gurus. The learner guide and workbook with which they are supplied provides a broad range of content that not only shows them how to clean and adjust a grinder so that it turns out the perfect espresso but also teaches them the ins and out of stock taking, storing coffee, hygiene, quality standards, service and customer interaction. 

“We ensure that there is a technical / theory side and a practical side. For example, they get to learn about tasting – the various flavours, the different coffees and blends and the related aromas. They will be fully equipped to work as a Barista once they graduate.  This will be a good stepping stone into the world of coffee,” says Chirambasukwa.   

The participants are ultimately assessed in house as well as receiving their official results from SETA.  

Chirambasukwa underlines the need for trained Baristas locally as well as internationally, adding that big centres such as Dubai are also on the lookout for accredited Baristas, providing local young trainees with exciting career opportunities.

“As coffee people, we have a passion for helping newcomers to the industry make a meaningful living doing something they love – working with coffee.  We want to develop entrepreneurs who can make a living from making great coffee. Much of how we train our own people for our own coffee bars is in this course – it’s just now recognised and accredited.”  

Jason Olive, who heads up Hospitality Placements which specialises in recruitment for the hospitality industry welcomed the creation of a local, accredited course and said he would be only too happy to receive resumes from Baristas who had completed this course. This would enable those pursuing a career in the coffee industry to aim for the top end of the salary scale which stretched from R4 000 to R20 000, depending on expertise and experience.  

Brown is confident that there is a massive, untapped market for coffee in South Africa where the majority of people are still, surprisingly, tea totallers! 

“But coffee is taking off and more and more people are drinking it.  That’s why we have to keep continually bettering ourselves and being better Baristas to serve up the very best cuppa.  We are proud that our course will be SETA accredited. We’ve built the training programme to ensure that learners can build on it by doing other courses at hospitality schools,” he says.  

The Daily Buzz, too, is going from strength to strength. Last year, the company rebranded and redesigned its coffee bars and went beyond its corporate roots when it also launched a tour of its roastery in Newtown in Johannesburg. Customers can also now order coffee for home brewing online.  The company also makes most of its food in house at a central kitchen in Marshalltown that opens at 3am to get food out early and fresh!  95% of what is bought in is sourced locally.  

Brown says the company now counts Standard Bank, GrowthPoint, Rand Merchant Bank, Nedbank, Attacq and EOH among its clients and employs more than 100 people. They are aiming to expand regionally and reach the 1 000 mark within five years.  

For more information, visit www.thedailybuzz.co.za and www.craftcoffee.co.za or follow them on twitter and Instagram - @craftcoffeesa and @thedailybuzzsa 

-- Ends --

Getting to know Andrew Brown: Andrew Brown started The Daily Buzz along with his brother Chris who has since exited the business.  A qualified chartered accountant with a passion for coffee, Brown started out by travelling the world crunching numbers rather than coffee beans.  On his return to South Africa from his base in London, he worked as a finance manager in the motoring and IT industries before joining Standard Bank as a risk manager. Here, in 2006, he spotted the opportunity to open a coffee bar serving premium quality coffee backed by exceptional service. The first one opened on the trading floor at Standard Bank head office in the Johannesburg CBD in 2006.Under the guidance of Brown and a dedicated management team, The Daily Buzz has gone from strength to strength. In 2013, he spotted another opportunity, this time opening coffee roaster, Craft Coffee, to supply The Daily Buzz and other wholesale customers. Craft Coffee has established itself as one of the premier artisan roasteries in South Africa.

On 23rd May 2017 the inaugural TULA graduation ceremony for young leaders in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)/ Contact Centre sector will take place in Cape Town.

The ceremony will be attended by Cape Town Executive Mayor Patricia de Lille who will also award the graduation certificates to the students. 59 students from 4 companies have attended the TULA leadership course over the past 18 months. TULA Founder and CEO, Gareth Pritchard, explained the relevance of the new leadership programme: “TULA works with OnTrac , an Indian based training and consulting company. The programme aims to give students the tools to develop their leadership skills and improve their respective company’s operational efficiency. More than 60,000 students worldwide have participated in the programme. The programme is unique in that it is able to measure the impact of learning activities against each company’s individual business goals.” 

Executive Mayor Patricia de Lille commended the students who had taken part in the programme: “I would like to congratulate each and every student who successfully completed their course and graduated in the first graduation ceremony of the TULA leadership programme. The BPO / Contact Centre sector is contributing significantly to the development of our economy, with over 4,500 new jobs created in the last year alone. This growth will only continue if we ensure that our leaders are equipped with globally recognised skills.” 

Lufthansa InTouch was one of the participating companies. Their Site Operations Manager, Ian Ohlson commented: “Not only does this program unleash the individual’s leadership potential, it also works towards achieving your organisational goals by allowing employees to take control and influence the bottom-line through individual and group work.”  

Capfin Business Operations Manager, Jacques Loubser agreed: “We see such a positive shift in team and individual performance, purely because the learnings imparted during the leadership programme speak to the cornerstones that make up a successful contact centre and in turn our people are able to positively influence the customer value proposition.” 

Leading global customer experience and business process outsourcing company, Webhelp, who employs over four thousand people in South Africa, also participated in the programme. Chief operating officer for South Africa, Simon Garabette, commented: “The quality and expertise of our people are extremely important to Webhelp. Our people are our biggest asset and it is crucial for us to be able to offer our best people rewarding and meaningful careers. Engaging in training of this nature highlights our commitment to developing our people, which benefits them and our clients through the enhanced levels of customer experience we can deliver to their customers.” 

EXL Service is a global provider of decision analytics, operations management, outsourcing, business transformation and IT services. Their country head, Pratap Rao, welcomed the invitation to participate in the programme: “As we continue to grow our teams and to solidify our presence in the industry, the TULA program played a huge role in not just helping the participants understand the importance of building winning teams, but how to build them as well. I can see a program like TULA becoming integral to growth in this industry in any geography. 

TULA has also formed a partnership with the Zoe Incubation Centre in Delft to help establish a skills pipeline in Delft to enable access for township communities into the contact centre sector. 7 of Zoe’s students will also be present at the graduation ceremony. 

The graduation ceremony will be held on 23rd May at 14:00 in Cape Town’s entrepreneurial hub, Workshop17, at the V & A Waterfront where TULA has its offices.    

TULA provides consulting services and training in the area of Operations Management for the Contact Centre / BPO sector.  CEO and founder is Gareth Pritchard

email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; cell: 0837030822; website www.tulasa.co.za; Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garethmpritchard Twitter @BPESACT