Plastics SA TV Commercial August 2014

Project Inception Communiqué

Plastics Chamber Research Project 2014

The Plastics Chamber at MERSETA is embarking on a third phase of research during 2014. It builds on data and insights gathered during similar projects in 2011 and 2012/2013.

What the two earlier projects uncovered was that there is a small group of companies that are innovating and developing improved manufacturing practices. These companies would like to collaborate with other like-minded companies and individuals to share ideas in order to build a vibrant and sustainable plastics industry in South Africa.

What these representatives also articulated was the fact that formal training as privileged though the SETA, the NQF and training grants only met a portion of their needs. Skills development, however, also happens in other ways and 2012/13 project uncovered, through the various success stories, that there are a number of activities that companies could use to build and develop their and so their staff’s capacity to improve and innovate. As a consequence they also seem to have found a way of attracting, developing and retaining talent.

The objectives of the 2014 project are:

·         Firstly to interrogate, validate and refine data and trends collected during the first two phases of research. This includes data on core employee skills for a range of plastics-industry related jobs, as well as training opportunities and options.

·         Secondly to identify practices which build on the core employee skills to develop people, enhance their engagement and contribution, build a quality consciousness culture, and to institutionalise innovation. This will improve the chances of such companies to attract and retain talent and thereby enhance the competitiveness sustainability of our industry.

·         Thirdly to identify ways in which to establish communities of practice within the plastics industry to enhance  learning, collaboration, sharing and co-creation of knowledge, the collection of useful resources and links to similar projects in other countries.

The sharing of knowledge should not be regarded as anti-competitive or as a form of collusion. The knowledge sharing is not linked to specific company products, processing technologies or markets but limited to practices which enhance performance in general. It is based on a principle called co-petition a situation where companies co-operate to add value to all the players yet each company tries to create its own competitive advantage in the market.

The outcomes of the proposed research programme can then be used to review, update and address gaps in core employee training offerings, provide guidelines to companies who want to embark on change and introduce innovation programmes and to create a possible outline for an industry strategy to harness, support and evolve the plastics industry to make it grow, become more competitive and develop more marketable products. By doing this the industry will also be in a better position to attract, develop and retain technical and other talent.
Download the Plastics Value Chain and Occupation documents.

The research process will comprise three focus group sessions, one to be held in KZN and two in the Gauteng region. These workshops will take place as follows:

Workshop 1 in KZN: 26 June 2014 (Thursday) Venue tbc.

Workshop 2 in Midrand: 16 July (Wednesday) Plastics|SA, Midrand

Workshop 3 in Midrand: 3o July (Wednesday) Plastics|SA, Midrand

Budgetary constraints have limited the amount of travel within the project. But to enable companies in other regions to participate a two-fold strategy is being used to disseminate workshop findings, get comments and, so, involve a larger number of companies. Summaries of the findings will be sent to regional MERSETA and PISA offices, companies that participated in past research and any other individuals who indicate that they are interested in participating. To back this up, information will also be published on this blog site. This will allow people from all quarters of the country to access and contribute to this strategic conversation.

These blogs will also help inform the project of the viability of on-line communication mechanisms and how such communication could take place in the future.

Project findings will be published as they are completed before the final project report is compiled and submitted to MERSETA.

The project team hopes in this way to not only capture critical information but to share it in order to galvanise companies to start adopting and implementing findings as they occur rather than wait for a full project report.