Black owned artisan training company, Artisan Training Institute (ATI), has announced that it will have invested R50-million on building satellite training facilities, refurbishing buildings, establishing new accommodation, and buying new equipment by the fourth quarter of this year.
The company initially reported it would spend a total of R40-million by the end of 2014. The R50-million invested signifies an investment by the company over the last seven years.
The company also recently paid back a R13,5-million loan from IDC- taken out in 2007 – in full.
Sean Jones, co-founder of ATI, said there were a number of projects underway, including the building of a new training centre in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), which would include accommodation for live-in apprentice learners.
“The KZN project, which will cost R3.5-million, will be completed by year end,” he says.
The company is also setting up a R4,5-million training centre in Hartbeesfontein, in the Northern Province, for diesel /tractor technicians – a centre that would also include accommodation.
By the end of the year, the company will offer accommodation for 32 learners in KZN, 26 in Hartbeesfontein, and 170 at its main training centre in Johannesburg.
Jones says the next “big growth phase” would be in the North West Province where the company has entered into an agreement with a large mining group to run a training facility on their behalf.
Mandisa Nyathikazi, co-owner of ATI, said the two partners had not drawn any dividends over the past seven years, choosing, instead, to plough back profits into “nurturing the business”.
Seven years ago Jones and Nyathikazi invested in excess of R20-million in buying and refurbishing the Ikhaya Fundisa Techniskills Academy (IFTA) in Roodepoort after receiving a bank loan from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). The company was renamed ATI two years ago.
ATI, one of the largest private training companies in South Africa, focuses on training artisans in a wide range of engineering-focused skills, including fitters and turners, rigger / ropes men, tool jig and dye makers, electricians, millwrights, instrumentation (MCI), welders, boilermakers, sheet metal workers, petrol and diesel mechanics, tractor mechanics, forklift mechanics, auto electricians and earth moving equipment mechanics.
