Cummins Southern Africa to launch new training school

Cummins Southern Africa to launch new training school

Cummins Southern Africa had big news to share at a media event earlier this week. The company boasted about a positive outlook in the southern African region for 2018, and shared some details on an exciting new project to be launched later in the year.

Thierry Pimi, MD of Cummins Southern Africa, said: “Despite difficult market conditions last year, Cummins performed very well by exceeding our sales forecasts and increasing our investments in the region.

“We are totally committed to the African continent and will continue to grow our business and develop new solutions for our customers. We have full confidence in the market as current political developments drive predominantly pro-business and pro-regulatory reforms in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Angola.

“We anticipate an improved relationship between the business community and the new government in South Africa. We are confident this will lead to a swifter resolution of the mining charter dispute, and look forward to this leading to increased investments in the country,” he explained.

The big news, however, was the announcement of the company’s first Technical Education for Communities (TEC) programme in South Africa. This will be launched in April 2018, in partnership with Komatsu SA, at the Sedibeng Technical Vocational Education and Training College. This is the third such programme to be launched on the continent.

“A big chunk of our employees are technical people. In Africa we need more field service capability, so we designed a curriculum to add to those found in technical and vocational colleges. In addition, students will also be taught soft skills so that they can have the confidence to deal with customers and colleagues once they enter the workplace,” Pimi noted.

FOCUS editor Gavin Myers conducted an exclusive interview with Pimi about the TEC programme. This will be published in issue 4 of FOCUS, which is currently in production.

Commenting at the event, Pimi said: “We will continue to drive a culture of excellence in our business performance, while working as a cohesive team and living our core value of diversity and inclusion. It is our vision for southern Africa to continually exceed our client expectations through world-class professionalism from a diverse and highly motivated team.

“We continue to develop and engineer new solutions in support of our clients’ wide range of needs. We are enthusiastic and optimistic about this year as we see a positive business environment, which has assured customers, improved investor confidence and accelerated business growth in southern Africa. I am confident that 2018 will be another great year and that we will continue to innovate to power the success of our customers,” Pimi enthused.

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Focus on Transport

FOCUS on Transport and Logistics is the oldest and most respected transport and logistics publication in southern Africa.
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