Born and raised in a small farming community close to the border of South Africa and Botswana I would have never thought that I will end up living in the city and work in the Chemical Industry. I am married to a beautiful wife and a busy 2 year old son.
After High school I made my way to Johannesburg to start a Career in Aviation. I completed my theoretical training in Aircraft Avionics at Denel centre of Learning and Development (DCLD) after which I started my apprenticeship and later completed my training with a Trade Test at SAAT (South African Airways Technical). I worked in the Aviation industry for almost 6 years and was appointed as an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer – Avionics/Instruments when I decided to make a career change to the Industrial sector.
In 2012 I had the opportunity to start a new career in Industrial Instrumentation and grabbed it with both hands. I soon realized that I had a lack of theoretical knowledge for the industry and that is when I started my search for part time studies and found EIT and applied for the Advanced Diploma of Industrial Automation.
Outline your study experience at EIT. Consider, for instance: the content, your lecturers, learning remotely, your Learning Support Officer, the technology used and your interactions with your fellow students. Please include both your study highlights and challenges:
My first impression of EIT was a good one with extremely helpful staff that assisted me with my initial questions. Everything at EIT is well organised and I never felt unsure of what will be happening next. The course content is very relevant and applicable to day-to-day work and I could relate and implement my learning on a daily basis.
Lectures are organised and presented by highly skilled lecturers that have years of experience in the field. I liked the fact that they could give real-world practical examples/problems. We could even ask questions relating to current problems. Being part of a global student group was humbling and made everything interesting. It was particularly enjoyable to meet and work with various nationalities and experienced individuals from all corners of the world on the Module 5 group project.
Being in a technology-driven industry, I found it really enjoyable to make use of the technology EIT used, making it world-class and one-of-a-kind. This contributed to making my studies “easier” than the traditional way of learning.
One of the big positives was being able to spend time with my family, assisting my wife with our son making dinner together and after my wife and son went to bed having a really good EIT class. That to me that was the best about studying with EIT, still being able to spend time with loved ones and completing my studies while they are fast asleep in the next room.
I am overall very pleased and with the education I received from EIT and thankful for all the work that EIT put in behind the scenes.
I look forward to lifelong learning relationship with EIT and IDC Technologies.
Describe how you have applied the EIT program knowledge to your work and if the program has helped you with career advancement:
From the start I was able to apply my learning from EIT in my work place. At the company I work at we do maintenance and small scale projects with guidance of from our Instrument Specialist.
We work on everything related to Automation from valves, control valves, temperatures, pressures, mass flows, mag flows, substation Automation right up to DCS system fault finding and programming. With the benefit of working in most aspects of Automation I was able to relate to most of the readings and lectures and gained important knowledge on why systems work, and are designed the way they are.
Knowledge gained from the lectures enabled me to ask questions with confidence and understand the principles used to design or set-up a system.
When confronted with a new system or concept I can relate back to an EIT lecture and can even go back and refresh my memory on a specific topic to make an informed decision.
EIT’s Advanced Diploma of Industrial Automation has made me a more knowledgeable and confident worker and I will forever benefit from the knowledge gained in those 18 months
What are your training and career goals for the next 5 years?
Currently my short term goal is to apply the knowledge gained with the Advance Diploma and make a positive impact for my employer in my current position as an Instrument Artisan. Hopefully by proving my worth within my department my next goal will be to be appointed as a Technician.
I will also be making use of the EIT value plus option for the entry into 2 complimentary workshops.
My long term goal is to be a competent Professional Control & Instrumentation Engineer (ECSA).
There are currently discussing on the table to introduce a 10th engineering discipline within the ECSA (Engineering Council of South Africa) framework that being Control & Instrumentation.
For me to achieve this goal I will continue my relationship with EIT for further studies.
