At the upcoming Executive Planning Session, the SAIMC will discuss various issues that need to be addressed. Some of these include:
• Driving education standards to address the needs of industry, including but not limited to, introducing international education programmes and qualifications. For too long our industry has had to retrain graduates before they become useful to an organisation in a C&I capacity. If industry gets its act together, we could very soon see students qualifying that could hit the ground running in this regard.
• Students are hampered by a lack of relevant practical experience. There is no coordinated effort by industry to ensure that students receive the experience they require to register as professional engineering technicians/technologists/engineers.
• Revisit the benefits to our members and patron members (branch and national), based on the feedback we have received from surveys.
• The impact of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrie 4.0 on South Africa and the responsibility of the SAIMC in this regard.
• Registration of an Automation category. A lot of work has been done in this regard and the time has come for the SAIMC to take the next step regarding the education, training and professional registration of C&I personnel. As an industry we have some choices to make and now is the time!
Johan Maartens.
After this session these actions will be documented and prioritised to shape our actions for the future with a focus on what is most important.
In closure, the time for new leadership at the SAIMC has come, both at the branch level and on council. This is an exciting time. Leadership changes, the SAIMC has always taken us into new territory. We have evolved from an obscure organisation into an international player working with the Automation Federation to establish automation as a separate engineering discipline and we are excited to take you along with us. The time is now!
SAIMC: From the office of the COO SAIMC
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