|
A Technical Guide for Wine Producers
|
|
RECENT ARTICLES | WYNBOER HOME
A Joint Venture Project Creating The "Technology Transfer Enabling Environment"
Gerard Martin, WINETECH
WINETECH embarked on a project in the Robertson Wine Valley under the direction of Gerard Martin with a view to establishing the overall demographics of available skills and the possible skills gaps.
The key driver of the "Enabling Environment Initiative" was Anzill Adams who is very passionate about the strengthening of the economy through the wine Industry.
Human Capital Solutions has facilitated an overall research and assessment process which would ultimately assist in determining the status of the academic levels and the necessity for capacity building and career development in this region with a view to determining:
The process was supported by a few wine cellars who showed a very keen interest in the evaluation process and the development of their people. The open discussions with cellar managers and the hospitality was indeed appreciated.
To remain competitive in the global wine industry - we must understand the operating cost and value creating chains from the 'vineyard to the glass'.
Global competition has forced a lot of countries to undergo huge amounts of technological advancement in order to stay competitive. The ability of a country to compete or to continue to compete therefore requires continuous technological development.
If a country wants to keep up with the rate of global technological advancement a number of factors are required. For one there needs to be a significant amount of expenditure on Research and Development, two there needs to be a competent base of skills working in Research and Development and lastly there needs to be a continuous inflow of high level skills into the work force.
Economic growth and international competitiveness are increasingly dependent on the generation and transfer of knowledge and technology. Technology can help improve the lives of South Africans by creating quality jobs. To be effective, this requires investment in education and training so that the workforce can use the latest technologies to reach ever -higher levels of productivity.
In today's modern economies, technology is increasingly the engine for growth. Economists in developed countries estimate that technological advance is responsible for as much as two-thirds of productivity growth during the past six decades. Investing in technology is an investment in South Africa's future. SA needs technology and innovation to continue stimulating current sustainable economic growth and to build capacity for the future.
To compete effectively with the other wine producing nations, South Africa requires leading-edge technologies that can reduce the cost of doing business in the country by creating a cost-effective and reliable infrastructure. Competitiveness is crucial to the health of our economy.
The value creating chain is made up of a number of aligned functions (vineyards to retailing), work processes (policies to instructions) and jobs (executives to low skilled workers).
Consequently, the value creating chain is also the framework for measuring industry activities and reviewing operating practices and standards - horizontally across aligned functions and vertically through functional work processes.
Competitiveness is not achieved at executive management level alone. Each and every worker needs to understand how their performance (outcomes) contribute to producing the best wines at national and internationally competitive prices.
This requires employees who are skilled, i.e. empowered to make informed work decisions.
The Cellars involved in the assessment process was:
Although the school qualifications are low on average it is commendable to see how many candidates have developed and applied themselves to a reasonable level of competence in basic communications and numeracy.
It is also important to note that there are a significant amount of candidates that have a grade 12 / standard 10 qualifications and are performing very low level duties.
Below are some development opportunities for workers on the different NQF levels.
NQF LEVEL 1
In many cases the wine cellars have not accessed Seta funding and do not have the infrastructure to make application for learning interventions to be funded.
In conclusion it is the believe that through the work that has been accomplished that this will be the birth of a new venture in the creation of the "Enabling Environment" that will benefit all communities with a common goal of making the lives of many people not only meaningful to themselves, but a significant contribution to the growing South African Economy.
|
|
Wynboer is incorporated in WineLand, magazine of the SA wine producers.
Visit our sister sites:
|
| UP |
COPYRIGHT (C) 2000 WineLand |