My name is Thuto Mosholi, im the director of Tshegofentse Facilities & Engineering. Our company is an accredited training provider with Chieta, Ewseta, Services seta and Agriseta. When I consider the importance of our company’s training offering especially the qualification Chemical Operations registered with Chieta, I realised I have come full circle. The Chemical Operations qualification is the foremost critical foundational qualification for plant operators in the chemical industry. I truly appreciate those who work as chemical plant operators, the need for this critical skill in the chemical industry and why we should continue to provide adequate training to operators.
A plant operator in the chemical manufacturing industry is someone whose key role and responsibility is to operate, manage and oversee the safe operation, maintenance, startup and shutdown of a chemical plant, section or unit of a factory. The plant operator works with heavy plant machinery, hazardous chemicals, reactors, furnaces, heat exchangers, boilers, compressors along with utilities such as cooling water, steam, compressed air all under strict safety guidelines. The operator works hands-on with the plant equipment interfacing with engineers, the laboratory, maintenance teams and the control panel operators.
In my experience working at the Natref Refinery, as a qualified Chemical Engineer coming out of University in 1999. I spent the first 4 months of my training working shifts as a trainee plant operator. This training was valuable and introduced me to my colleagues at the plant, helping me understand the critical work they do, the technical and safety aspects of their work and to translate engineering theory into practice. I was assigned the following process units; the Diesel Hydrotreater, Cooling Towers, Demineralization plant and the Hot Oil circulation system.
The first and hardest lesson I learned was that of “walking the lines”, I was given the plant flow diagrams with a lot of line drawings, equipment and charts and my responsibility was to identify each line and each piece of equipment on the flow diagrams. To do this I depended on the training and advise from my fellow plant operators colleagues, I appreciated their technical knowledge and expertise. Their practical understanding of engineering basics such as chemical reactions, heat exchange, fluid flow hydraulics etc. Even more fascinating is to watch the cooperation between panel and outside operators during a plant startup and plant shutdown. I was involved in such many activities not forgetting late night catalyst change shutdowns or inspecting distillation column trays.
All these experiences from the simple understanding of a demineralization of water prior to converting to superheated steam or the chemical dosing in cooling tower was learned practically and I was taught all these by my plant operator friends. Today chemical plant operators are still critical in the running of chemical manufacturing plants and hence here at Tshegofentse Training Academy our strong focus is in training this qualification. We are accredited to training Chemical Operations from NQF Level 1 – 4.
Today as a chemical engineer I still look to plant operators as the pillars of a process plant, now I am a training provider offering full qualification in Chemical Operations to future chemical operators.
Tshegofentse Training Academy provides a list of our seta accredited qualifications which includes Chemical Manufacturing, Water and Wastewater, Professional Services and Agriculture. We are situated in Vanderbijlpark.
Tshegofentse Training Academy providing “Occupation Directed Training” with Results. Results being Productivity, Motivated staff, Customer satisfaction and Succession planning.
Tshegofentse Training Academy is a value adding and occupation aligned training provider. For us Training is not about just getting that certificate, but what you are able to do with it.
We provide both unit standard based accredited training and customized training as per client requirements.Our organization is run by technically inclined personnel who are able to provide valuable advisory services to clients. Our team of facilitators consists of ECSA registered Engineers, Scientists, Experienced Educators and Industry subject matter experts.
