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South African design college gets financial boost
29 June 2007 at 11h00

Critical skills development received a boost recently, when global business leader Carol Bartz pledged software resources to help ease the shortage of local draughting skills. Draughting is a fundamental function in every engineering and construction project. All projects start at the drawing board, or today, in front of a computer, where draughts persons use their computer-aided design skills to create detailed drawings and plans for project-execution teams. According to the SA Institute of Draughting, South Africa produces only one-fifth of the 5 000 draughts persons required annually by the industry. Bartz, executive chairperson of global design software company Autodesk Inc, was visiting the new Boksburg campus of the African Academy. A non-profit organisation, the college has, since 1994, been alleviating poverty through the transfer of computer-aided design skills to students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds.

The graduates' drawing office skills are highly sought after in SA's skills-strapped engineering and construction sectors, with the academy placing an average of 96 percent of its graduates in employment every year. As a founder sponsor of the academy, Autodesk has provided the college with world-class design software valued in excess of R6-million. The company has also contributed R250 000 to the development of the African Academy's new campus, which gives it the capacity to treble its number of graduates.

Bartz reaffirmed Autodesk's support for the academy, pledging to fulfil the college's growing software needs as it expands to meet the country's draughting requirements, as well as its own vision of becoming Africa's premier draughting and design college. African Academy graduate and draughter at RPP Consulting Engineers, Hilda Poo, personifies the African Academy's success stories. A single mother when she started studying at the academy, she is, today, one of two female draughters at RPP Consulting Engineers. "I had a wonderful opportunity at the academy, which opened doors that were chained and welded closed," Poo told guests at the academy.S he is currently studying for her mechanical engineering degree at Unisa. Named one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business by Fortune magazine, Bartz, who has been appointed to US President George Bush's council of advisers on science and technology, said Autodesk's support for the academy is part of its heritage of fostering creativity and innovation. Each year, a million students around the world learn how to use Autodesk products. The company has more than 2 000.

For more information, visit www.autodesk.co.za or call Mary Jearey on 011-704-1107.