THE newly established Automotive Industry Development Centre (AIDC) in the Eastern Cape has started its ambitious project of providing education to its industry workers.

It will do this through several educational institutions in the province which provide accredited qualifications specific to the automotive industry.

The institutions which will provide the AIDC programmes include Border Technikon, Rhodes University, Buffalo City College, PE Technikon, PE College, East Cape Midlands College and Ikhala College.

These institutions will provide SAQA accredited training and learnerships for a variety of courses such as autotronics, mechatronics and robotics, vehicle maintenance, drafting, computer based training, and component and tools design.

The AIDC aims to assist educational institutions in the area “to research, interact and address the needs of the automotive industry.”

The objective is to build human capacity in the industry across the eight NQF skills levels “so that a link is created between the demand for skills and the supply of those skills.

The AIDC Eastern Cape operation, based in Port Elizabeth, is a joint venture between the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) and the CSIR.

The Eastern Cape is home to four vehicle manufacturers and over 150 component manufacturers, who together contribute about 50 per cent of South Africa’s vehicle export.