Councillor Logie Naidoo, Deputy Mayor of the eThekwini Municipality was the keynote speaker at the official opening of the Durban Centre of the Furniture Technologies Centre Trust (Furntech) on 5 August 2004. The City of Durban’s investment promotion agency, DIPA has played an important role is assisting Furntech establish itself in Durban. Further, the City’s Development Management Department was instrumental in facilitating the development of this exciting new project for Durban.

Furntech is a substantial contributor to the development of the South African furniture and wood products industries in the areas of skills development and business technology incubation. There are Furntech Centres in Cape Town and George in the Western Cape, Umzimkhulu in the Eastern Cape and a centre under construction in White River in Mpumalanga. The Durban Centre will act as the hub for services in KwaZulu-Natal.

Furntech is an independent Section 21 company that is led by a Board of Trustees under the leadership of Professor Ernst van Biljon, the Campus Director of the PE Technikon in George. “The rapid expansion of Furntech  is a direct result of the support for Furntech by sector stakeholders, and the huge demand for Furntech’s services that signalled the need to expand the organisation’s presence and for it to become the national training and incubation institution of choice for the furniture and wood products industries, says Van Biljon.

Michael Reddy, the CEO of Furntech says the first Furntech Centre was established in George in 2002 as a result of a Memorandum of Agreement between the Department of Trade and Industry and the Swedish International Development Agency.  The DTI provided the capital to establish the training and incubation centres, while Furntech’s partnership with the Tibro Training Centre (TTC) in Sweden ensures that Furntech’s trainers benchmark their efforts against international best practice.

“The Swedish input of knowledge and expertise has raised the level of skills training in the industry to new heights, and we are constantly evaluating our offerings in close cooperation with our customers and the broader industry,” says Reddy.

Furntech’s training and recognition of prior learning (RPL) policies are based on the Skills Development Act, and the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) regulations. Furntech is accredited by FIETA to offer learnerships, skills programmes and short courses in the four disciplines:
• Cabinet making
• Wood finishing
• Wood machining
• Upholstery

To this end, Furntech has invested in the development of learning materials aligned with the existing draft unit standards within the context of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), and benchmarked against Swedish best practice.

Vision and Mission Statements
Furntech’s vision is to offer competitive training and innovative solutions to the furniture and wood products sector, and to contribute to the growth of the industry.

Furntech’s mission is to be a productivity driven, globally competitive, outcomes based training provider that delivers high quality, world class training at an acceptable cost; and innovative solutions in terms of incubation, and job creation and technology transfer based on the needs of the furniture and allied industries

For more information please contact:

Michael Reddy: CEO of Furntech on 082 446 0554
Iegshaan Ariefdien: Business Development Manager of Furntech on 082 823 7786
Joy Crane: National Training Manager of Furntech on 082 330 0777