Novus Academy wins SETA award for excellence in skills development

Novus Academy staff celebrating their award win, back row: Elicia van Schoor, Nelia Burger, Owen America, Paulo Santos and in the front row: Miena van Staden, Wynoma Joseph and Hazel Carelse.

The Awards recognise leading projects from various organisations that make outstanding contributions to skills development in South Africa. Winning projects were selected from 91 entries received from different organisations covering 13 sub-sectors, namely the clothing, footwear, forestry, furniture, general goods, leather, packaging, printing, print media, publishing, pulp and paper, textiles and wood products.

"We are very honoured to receive this recognition. Our passion for training and having noted the shortage of specialised skills in the marketplace prompted us to establish the Novus Academy in 2011. Over the years we have built a world-class facility dedicated to providing the most advanced training in order to strengthen the skills level of future generations in the print industry," said Nico Grobbelaar, executive head of Human Resources at Novus Holdings, previously known as the Paarl Media Group.

The Novus Academy has set the benchmark for industry training accredited by SETA and the City & Guilds of London Institute. Apprenticeships are offered in 13 specialised areas which include mechanised book binding, web offset heatset lithography, web offset coldset lithography, web offset sheetfed lithography, gravure printing, gravure cylinder preparation, roll label flexographic printing, electronic pre-press flexography, electronic pre-press lithography, electronic pre-press screen printing, electronic pre-press gravure, printers mechanic and printers electrician.

"We further facilitate non-technical management and leadership development to continuously advance the skills of our employees and help build their careers. We give our employees the opportunity to learn, grow and excel at their jobs through the offering of a variety of technical, life-skills, management, leadership, IT and systems related courses and a host of other programmes facilitated by the Novus Academy. We also provide our customers with access to training that empowers them to manage their own projects efficiently," concludes Grobbelaar.