Taking craft training a step further
 
Annette Theron
 
The Hermanus Whale Festival Craft Project has taken a step up and participants will reach higher standards of proficiency due to the combining of forces between the Festival project and the Media, Advertising, Printing, Publishing and Packaging MAPPP-SETA (MAPP Seta).
National Arts Council (NAC) funding has been injected into training alongside funding from MAPPP Seta, to present a Learnership NQF Level 2 in Craft Production in Hermanus. Thirty learners were selected to attend this outstanding learning opportunity.
Craft co-ordinator for the Whale Festival, Julie Woodvine, explained that they are building upon last year’s initiative by taking the training a step further. The learners are keen to form a co-operative and apply their newly acquired skills in practise.
“Because the NAC grant is being used in conjunction with Learnership this project offers a sustainable outcome for the learners,” she said
 
The NQF Learnership Educational Program is presented by Art-I-Kapa as the accredited training provider and assessors registered with MAPPP Seta, with the RDP as the partner in the joint venture.
A recent visit to the RDP training facility saw this eager group of learners learning and realising that this is an opportunity of a lifetime.
At present they are in the process of making furniture from alien vegetation and doing other craft items commissioned for the Whale festival from materials and equipment that was sponsored by the Whale festival thanks to the National Arts Council grant.
MAPPP SETA Project Manager Annalie Theunissen and the trainers Coleen Emmenis and Wynand Bezuidenhout together with their mentor Joanne Kunz are responsible for educating this group in the subjects of Craft, Art and Design, Numeracy, Literacy, Computer skills, HIV/ AIDS and Life Skills.
I popped in again on Friday to check on the progress of the crafters making the most unusual, practical and creative garden furniture from alien vegetation.  During my visit Annalie was busy teaching a group of learners the intricate art of beading. Everybody present during the beading course had learnt the basic beading stitches and loom work. Annalie assured me that the class would be able to make a necklace or bracelet by the end of the day.

A few of the unit standards for Craft and Design are:
The accumulation of ideas for the design of a craft product
To interpret client specifications
To identify and use the correct tools and materials
To make one of a product and then be able to reproduce this product
Then to present this product for market.
 
None of these subjects are presented in isolation and all the business, mathematics, literacy abilities are applied in all of the above - from the first idea of a product to the costing and pricing  aspects of production.
 
The first three months of training was spent on all aspects related to a craft business – they had to apply their knowledge of mathematics for the design of the garden furniture and conduct thorough research. They had to ask themselves “ Is my product aesthetically pleasing” and that  was just one of many questions that formed part of the research.
After successful completion of this learnership, the learners  will receive their National Qualification Framework Level 2 Certificate . And should a learner not be found to be competent on all unit standards they will still receive a skills certificate.
 
This MAPPP Seta NQF Level 2 Craft Production Learnership in short means the participants will be trained crafters and are covering a range of integrated subjects with craft as core subject. Further subjects include literacy, numeracy, entrepreneurial, computer skills, HIV/Aids awareness, life skills. These subjects will equip the trainees for future job opportunities.
 
 “A further part of their training will see them qualify to assist with events. “To be part of an event as prestigious as the Hermanus Whale Festival will see their training put to the test,” says a confident Theunissen. All the products being made by the learners will be on sale at the Hermanus Whale Festival and the funds raised will be used to host a ceremony for the learner’s graduation.

 

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