Timber iQ October - November 2017 // Issue: 34 | Page 52

FEATURES
There are many skilled timber professionals who don’t have the necessary qualifications or accreditations.
What skills are required
in timber?
When it comes to the timber construction industry, skills
onsite and adequate training is still a huge challenge.
By Ntsako Khosa
P
roper training is a prerequisite for any site job and
having inadequate training can be risky for both a
timber contractor and its client.
“We’re doing something that can be dangerous if it’s not
done right,” says Edward Curry from Giant Engineering. In
the industry, he shares that there are many unqualified
people erecting roofs without any understanding of why or
how certain things are done. The big problem he says is
that there are guys who have the experience but
unfortunately, don’t have any formal training.
“There are so many carpenters around but 90% of them
don’t have formal training, most of them can’t even write,”
he says.
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)
College, Coastal KwaZulu-Natal TVET College says that
50 OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2017 //
untrained workers on site don't always understand the
precision that goes into the design and fabrication of
timber roof structures and, in most cases, they have little
to no understanding of site drawings and layout. This
results in inadequate bracing or incorrect installation of
bracing to the roof structures, which renders the roof
structure legally non-compliant and the structure unsafe
for occupation.
THE RISKS OF POOR TRAINING AND
INADEQUATE SKILLS
With the ultimate risk of poor training and inadequate
skills include the death of clients, there are other risks
Coastal College points out that poor training affects the
entire timber construction industry, with the consumer