The Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) is to launch an intensive programme in an effort to improve the business skills of 60 contractors so that they deliver infrastructure projects more effectively and efficiently and in turn create more jobs.

“The programme addresses individual developmental areas in addition to training in areas such as administration, resource management, marketing and tendering,” says ECDC enterprise development project leader Spencer Lazarus.

This training, which costs R85 000 per annum per person, will comprise both an academic programme together with mentorship. Mentors will be industry professionals such as quantity surveyors, engineers and contracts managers and will follow a course developed in conjunction with the CSIR and the Free State University.

“Already the first group of 50 prospective mentors have attended the introductory workshop to the mentorship programme,” explains Lazarus.

The one year mentorship aims to specifically address the pitfalls of similar programmes where mentors work with contractors for short period.

“The benefits to this approach are obvious since it allows for intensive skills transfer to local service providers,” adds Lazarus.

He says the number of contractors which a mentor will be able to coach will depend on the contract values but it is likely that a committed mentor may not want to manage more than five contracts of between R2 million and R2,5 million.

Mentors will spend close to 700 hours with each mentee and in turn earn a percentage of the contract value in which her or his contractor is involved.

Training will take place in East London, Port Elizabeth and Umtata.

In the picture
From left: Cannon Noyana, MD of Noyana Management Consultancy; Spencer Lazarus, Project Leader Enterprise Development Services, ECDC; Sihle Dlungwana Industrial Engineer, CSIR and Prof Dries Hauptfleisch, Free State University.