ETC Celebrates it's 35 year milestone

Nelson Mandela Bay’s well known training institution, Eastcape Training Centre (ETC) celebrated its 35th anniversary last week. The celebrations reached a climax with a glittering banquet in its impressive conference centre in Struandale Wednesday May 11. The key note address was delivered by Kevin Hustler, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber.

Established in 1976 this landmark training institution in the country has been an enduring quality in people investment for over three decades!

Governed by a board of directors from major stakeholders, ETC is accredited and has programme approval with 8 SETA’s and provisionally registered as a private  Further Education and Training (FET) College registered with the Department of Education.

ETC always boasted some impressive achievements

In its first year of operations ETC trained a total of 304 people per annum, by 1989, at the height of its operations, the figure rose to a staggering 10 000 per annum with ETC operating five satellite centres in the Cape and employing over 400 people.

By 1996 ETC had trained over 300 000 people. Today trainee throughput stands in excess of 6000 per annum with a staff complement of 70.

Through the three decades of its history the Eastcape Training Centre recorded some noteworthy milestones:

The opening of a state of the art, five star, 600 - seater Conference Centre in 1987 with excellent recreation facilities adjacent to the Conference Centre. It consisted of a modern auditorium with over 500 metres floor space and three committee rooms. The ETC Conference Centre was also listed in the national Top 100 Companies and hosted some important functions with high profile South Africans.

In 1987 won the ETC won Institute for Personnel Management (IPM) award for Best Video Production and 1990 it received the Best Training Centre in SA award.

 Given its groundbreaking work on the famous Mossgass Project,) a highly respected international consultant, Mr Earl Kozi (OBE ) described the Eastcape Training Centre as SA’s national treasure. During this project more than 7500 learners were trained 7500 learners on a national basis on 9 different sites.

While the ETC is one of the most recognizable brands in training and skills development, the organization was re-branded in 2008 and at the heart of this lies the ETC vision of sustaining high quality standards in training and taking pride in it.

In 2009 ETC was awarded 3 national awards by the Association for Private Providers of Education Training and Development (APPETD):

• Leading Training Provider
• Leadership Award – Mr. R Jonas (CEO)
• Teacher of the Year award – Mr. J. Koortzen

The company believes that its competitiveness rests on global thinking and its logo depicts the ETC in a global space and its motto “Proudly advancing skills development” propagates a firm commitment to quality.

With 6 departments, dedicated training and admin staff and an infrastructure which models the industry work environment; the Eastcape Training Centre, which is one of only two remaining training centers which was established in the country in the 70’s that is still in operation; has certainly established itself as a leading training institution in the country and is a model for closing the skills gap in South Africa.