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By Samkelwa Xaba
Oftentimes students find themselves in a position where they do not have the knowledge and information to accelerate their careers earlier on in the refrigeration and air-conditioning industry.
The aim of this article is to create and build an environment that connects students from various training institutions and companies with professionals within the HVACR industry to interact and have dialogue using this platform.
Each year there is an increase in the number of young people recruited by MERSETA offering them training opportunities via learnership and apprenticeship programmes within the refrigeration industry.
However, there is a lack of guidance, mentorship or even a community in both training institutions and companies that will assist students in their journey to professionalism and to become good service engineers within the sector.
With the aforementioned in mind, the RACA Journal is taking an initiative to create the said platform. In this first article two students were selected to meet up with a mentor and share their experiences as females within the known male-dominated industry. They were also given an opportunity to ask questions and in return the mentor offered them advice and guidance.
Brief background on mentor: Ester Gladys Gwemba
Gwemba is currently working at RCL Foods Pies, based in Krugersdorp as a refrigeration technician. She has been with the company for almost five years now. Some of her most enjoyable responsibilities includes working on and maintaining chillers, cold rooms and freezers, troubleshooting systems, various repairs, welding, defrost, and start up of the ammonia plant. Her most recent task was to change all the R22 units to R404 refrigerant.
She did her training at Delta Beverages in Harare, Zimbabwe for four years and has worked for Maxima Global Engineers in the Eastern Cape, Sigma Facility Management in Johannesburg and Energy Solutions in Midrand before.
She says her first choice of study was electrical engineering but she was lucky enough to receive career guidance from one of the training officers to consider refrigeration since its both the combination of electrical, mechanical and refrigeration.
She finds the trade enjoyable and one of her key strengths is the fact that she can work under pressure and under minimum supervision. She hopes to see other young females dominating the industry.
The advice she gives students who are entering this field is that they should be brave, fearless and confident in the work they do: “The work you do and all the effort you put in will market itself.” |
 Student: Noxolo Dube
Dube was born and raised in the dusty streets of Vosloorus, east of Johannesburg. Initially her first choice of study was radiation therapy, however due to unforeseen circumstances and limited funds, she enrolled for N courses in electrical engineering in a TVET College in Cape Town where she grew her love of engineering. Since then, she has never looked back.
She was offered a learnership in refrigeration and air-conditioning with a private company, Compact Cool, and is currently enrolled at ACRA where she is busy tackling her studies in refrigeration.
One of the enjoyable tasks for her at work is to braze. She worked as a brazer for a year, dealing with copper pipes. Because of her courage and dedication at work, she was entrusted with more tasks and given the opportunity to learn panel wiring, installation and assembly. She notes she was clueless at the beginning but her skills and understanding got better with time because she got the support she needed from the training instructors at ACRA and her workplace.
Her journey as a student in the industry has been challenging yet fruitful. She has learned a lot, especially in electrical, and she has learned discipline and persistence while continuing to look forward to broaden her knowledge.
Her short term goal is to continue to learn as much as she can, and she is dedicated to making a success of her career and build a name for herself in the industry. She would love to change the mentality around the stereotype men have of women and their abilities.
Noxolo’s question to the mentor is:
Job marketing is the hardest. How does one go about preparing and proving that you are worthy, or the best candidate for that position you are after, especially knowing that I will be competing amongst many men for the same opportunity?
|
 Student: Shela Mashiangako
Mashiangako is a student in her late twenties and a very aspiring individual. Originally from Mokopane, Limpopo, she holds a qualification in electrical engineering and is currently an apprentice with GEA Africa – one of the largest supplies of process technology for the food industry – refrigeration being the one of them.
She started her apprenticeship programme in 2018, but this was consequently only kickstarted in 2020. She is currently based in the industrial refrigeration department. Her responsibilities that she enjoys are building, installing, maintaining and servicing all systems on site.
She is busy tackling her studies and training at ACRA too. She has studied electrical engineering and getting an opportunity in refrigeration was not one of her particular goals and was definitely not easy in the beginning because the entire refrigeration process was foreign to her and she didn’t have a clue what was expected of her. Now she has fallen in love with the sector by getting exposure to it and going on frequent site visits made her realise how broad the industry is.
She has noted from her personal experiences that there are comparatively very few women in the industry, and that men are also still not used to having women working alongside them. Her encouragement to those young women who want to embark on a career in refrigeration is to do it now while technicians and specialists in the sector are in high demand.
Shela’s question to the mentor is:
This is really an industry career worth pursuing. What advice do you have as to how to escalate a career going forward, so I can reach a level of being a great service engineer? |
Note: Mentor Ester Gladys Gwemba will respond to these questions in next month’s article.
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