Paint Chemist a dying breed in South Africa

Name : Samuel Jansen

Student no. : 208245987

Supervisor : Mr. S.E. Cronje

Date : 6 November

1

Acknowledgements

I would like thank SAPMA for providing the information I needed and Dr. Philip Green aiding me and sharing his knowledge on the paint Industry

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Index

i. Acknowledgements 2ii. Keywords 5

Chapter1 6

1.1 Introduction 61.2 The problem statement 71.3 Research objectives 71.4 Research methodology 71.5 Delimitation of the study 71.6 Importance of the study 7

2 Chapter 2 8

2.1 Introduction 92.1 Function of a paint Technologist 92.2 Definition of training 92.3 Definition of skill 92.4 Definition of technical skill 92.5 Formulation skill 102.6 Current programs offered 102.7 National Skills Strategy 132.8 Summary 13

3 Chapter 3 14

3.1 Introduction 143.1.1 Qualitative research 143.1.2 Quantitative research 143.2 Research design 153.3 Data collection 15

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4 Chapter 4 16

4.1 Introduction 164.2 Summary of results 164.2.1 Age distribution in Paint Industry 164.2.2 Qualification analysis 174.2.3 Experience in the paint Industry 174.2.4 SAPMA modules completed 184.2.5 Satisfaction analysis with training 194.2.6 Scarce skill listed from respondents 19

5 Chapter 5 20

5.1 Findings 205.2 Conclusion 205.3 Recommendations 21

6 References 22

4

Keywords

REACH Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals

SAPMA South African Paint Manufacturing Association

SAPITI South African Paint Industry Training Institute

CHIETA Chemical Industries Education & Training Authority

OCCA Oil, Colour Chemist Association

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Chapter 1

1.1 Introduction

The Paint Industry is a well established industry in South Africa and continually growing, with the construction booming for 2010 soccer world Cup there is a higher demand for paint. The South African Building paints market earned US$ 630 million in 2006, with construction activity increases and expendable household incomes rising which was reported from Frost and Sullivan.

There are continual developments taking place in manufacturing and the chemical needs for South Africa and globally is changing rapidly year on year. Changes in the Paint Industry like requirements for REACH, Ecology Friendly Paints, chemical legislation, technological development and the manufacturing of cheaper paints have exposed the skills shortage in the industry.

Most of the Technical staff in the industry is old ex-employee of companies like Plascon and Dulux who provided the technical back ground for ex-employees. Most of this technical staff have established their own companies and have not passed on technical skill to junior lab staff.

Also, they have not kept up with technological developments, and hence these new companies have become dependent on raw material suppliers for new technology and formulation design.

Paint Technical skills is now being listed as scarce skills in South Africa and training programs are in the process of being established by CHIETA, SAPMA and stake holders within the paint industry.

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1.2 The problem statement.

The lack of Technical staff in the paint industry will have a negative impact on the operational activities of the industry performance and will affect the way we respond to technological developments.

1.3 Research Objectives.

The main objectives of this article are to:

1. Investigate Function of Paint Technologist2. Define training3. Define skill4. Explain a formulation skill5. The efficiency of current training programs.6. National Skills Development Strategy7. Conduct an empirical study.

1.4 Research methodology

This research project comprises of a literature review and an empirical study in the form of a questionnaire.

1.5 Delimitation of the study

A sample was taken from a cross section of SAPMA members and raw material suppliers within the paint industry.

1.6 Importance of the study

The information gathered in this study can help SAPMA and OCCA get a clear understanding regarding skills shortages in the paint industry as no real surveys was done although there is no actual study done around this subject.

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1.7 Layout of the Study

1.7.1 Chapter 2 deals with the Literature review related to the article.

1.7.2 Chapter 3 deals with Research methodology.1.7.3 Chapter 4 deals with Data analysis and interpretation.1.7.4 Chapter 5 deals with the Findings, conclusion and

recommendations.

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Chapter 2 Literature review

2.1 Introduction

The previous discussed the problem statement and the methodology to investigate the problem. This chapter deals with the literature review.

2.2 Function of a Paint Technologist

The task of paint technology is to provide surface protection, decorative finishes and numerous special functions for commodities and merchandise by means of organic coatings (BASF Handbook of Basic of Coating Technology: 2005). Many products in everyday life needs to protected, there forth the development of paint formulations are relevant.

Paint technicians use their knowledge of the physical sciences like chemistry, physics and mathematics to address complicated industrial problems concerning paint and its use. The paint technicians' work may include the chemical and physical analysis of paints, with regard to the type of elements and their quantitative composition. For this task, paint technicians make use of highly developed apparatus and equipment.

They must have knowledge of the specific chemical and physical properties of literally thousands of different colour pigments, solvents and binding agents, as well as the machinery that is used in the manufacturing process. Paint technicians also have to be able to formulate and manufacture various synthetic resins that constitute the binder of paint.

Paint technicians do research and development on new and existing types of paint, with the purpose of improving or changing them to the advantage of the consumer and the producer. Since this is a specialized field, most paint technicians with experience and knowledge of the subject are concerned with research. A scientific aptitude, an interest in calculations and ability to reason analytically are essential in this career. Paint technicians must be methodical and accurate in their work and they must find laboratory work interesting. They must be familiar with this subject, keep abreast of new developments and be able to function independently.

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2.2 Definition of training

Training is a learning experience, which seeks a relatively permanent change in an individual’s skills, knowledge, attitudes or social behavior (De Cenzo and Robbins: 1997). To improve an employee’s skills is to point him or her in the direction where they can perform the job more effectively [Hellriegel, Jackson, Klopper and Oosthuisen: 2001]. Training interventions and methods are thus aimed at changing the current level of skills and knowledge regarding the job.

2.3 Defining a skill

A skill can be defined as an action of how to use knowledge gained to demonstrate how action is performed in a certain way (Wickham: 1998). Synonymous with the word skills are words like competencies or and abilities. In paint chemistry, formulation skills and problem solving demonstrate paint technologist technical abilities. Formulation involves defining customer needs and translating them into a formulation that will deliver the right balance of properties of paint or coating at an acceptable cost. There is seldom a single solution to a formulation requirement, and different technologies offer alternative solutions, which must be judged in the light of operational, environmental, and other considerations. These needs and alternatives methods are highlighting the skills need in the Paint industry. Also, skills can be defined in terms of four categories: personal skill, technical skill, business operation skill and management skill.

2.4 Technical skill

Technical skills are the ability to use tools, procedures and techniques of specialized field (hellriegel et al.2001). According to Hodgetts and Kuratko (1989), technical knowledge enables one to understand how specific things work. Technical skills can be broken down into five categories indentified by Hirschowitz, Slabbert, Clark (1989): product knowledge or what the particular product could do or what the product can used for; process knowledge or how to manufacture the relevant product and all the steps that need to be taken to do so; knowledge of the market and what type of person actually needs to use the product.

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2.5 Formulation skill

Formulation skills may also be defined as the science and technology of producing a mixture of two or more components with more than one conflicting measure of product quality. It therefore requires some understanding of the functional properties of the building blocks, i.e. raw materials, and the science of mixtures.

2.6 Current programs offered

SAPITI is the training arm of SAPMA. The overall objective of SAPITI is to provide education and training services to the paint manufacturing industry, to companies supplying goods and services to the industry as well as to users and specifies of the industry's products.

A paint technology course is currently offered with 11 modules. Most modules are of four months duration and consist of a self-study part combined with compulsory practical work exercise in the laboratories of SAPMA members under the guidance of qualified counselors. Qualifications are certified and recognized through the industry.

A training scheme leading to vocational qualifications for manufacturing workers is under development in co-operation with CHIETA. Both the paint technology course and the vocational training material will be adapted to comply with the requirements of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF).

The course uses the "Distance Learning" method of tuition, and can be described as a hybrid between a pure correspondence course and traditional classroom tuition.

There are four components to the Distance Learning method. i.e. the Lectures, the Practical Exercises, the Tutorials, and the Assessments.

1. The LECTURE in which information is presented. The lecture is presented in the form of notes. The notes present the diagrammatic and printed information. It is intended that this theoretical material be studied at home, in the students' own time.

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2. PRACTICAL EXERCISES which complement the academic theory. These are carried out under the guidance and supervision of a Counselor, who would be an experienced Paint Technologist. The practical sessions are carried out at the laboratories of several of the major paint companies, and facilities are available at Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. They are performed during working hours, and the student will require time off work to attend them. Where a student works for a company possessing the necessary facilities and having a suitably qualified person to act as a Counselor then the practicals will be carried out at his own place of work. On completion of the practical, a report is written up by the student, and submitted for marking.

3. The TUTORIAL In which problems may be sorted out. Two tutorial sessions are conducted during each course. These sessions area group activity, under the guidance of a tutor, and serve as a forum for highlighting important aspects of the syllabus, and for answering queries that the student might have.

4. ASSESSMENT of the student’s progress is carried out in several ways. Firstly there are self assessed questions contained in the text of the notes, and where the answers are contained within the notes or tapes.

Secondly there are "computer" marked assessments, which provide multiple choice questions. The marked assessments provide the student and tutor with a measure of progress made, and enable any corrective action to be taken. Thirdly, the marked practical reports give a further assessment of progress and of understanding. Lastly, there are the tutors marked assessments, which take the form of written test papers at the end of the course. The student is required to obtain a minimum pass mark of 50% in both the theoretical and the practical assessments. The standard of assessment is moderated by the Education Committee of SAPMA in order to ensure that a consistent standard, equivalent to that of the UK course, is maintained.

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A student from a non technical environment might only study Module 01 in order to gain good background knowledge of the subject, while a student in a technical environment would probably want to study all 8 modules.

2.7 National Skills Development Strategy

Due to the skills shortages in various industries the Government have established the National Skills Authority, who is responsible for the development of a national skills strategy and have the responsibility of indicating or listing scarce skills. The Paint technologist has been listed as a critical scarce skill in 2008.

According to Nel et al. (2004:), South Africa has a poor skills profile as a result of quality of general education. The Skill Development Act ,97 of 1998 and the Skill Development Levies Act, 9 of 1999 was developed to stimulate the investment into training and skills development. According to Paterson(2004), National Skills Development Strategy must address the past differences in education, skill and wage levels in the working population and utilize the workplace as an active learning environment.

2.8 Summary

The skills defined and described in this chapter were used to construct the survey questionnaire. The results are also analyzed and presented accordingly.

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Chapter 3 Research Methodology

3.1 Introduction

The previous chapter discussed the literature review related to the research problem. This chapter contains a description of what method was used to conduct this research. There are basically two mainstream methodologies used in research, which are namely quantitative and qualitative research. Qualitative research was undertaken, to get the opinions of technical people the paint industry regarding skills shortages in the paint industry. Before discussing the methods employed, a brief description of the methodologies will be reviewed.

3.1.1 Qualitative research

Qualitative studies are tools used in understanding and describing the world of human experience. By doing qualitative research is to qualify your research through observations, interviews, and analysis the participant’s experiences. (Uwe Flick: 2007)

3.1.2 Quantitative research

Quantitative research is the numerical representation and manipulation of observations for the purpose of describing and explaining the phenomena that those observations reflect. Creswell (1994) has given a very concise definition of quantitative research as a type of research that is `explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that are analyzed using mathematically based methods (in particular statistics).

A qualitative research method was used, as the main concerned was to collect and analyze information about training and/or technical skills in the paint industry. The particular qualitative strategy used was that of an extended of questionnaire which was filled in by technical people from the paint industry.

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3.2 Research design

A questionnaire was designed, that was divided into three sections. Section one covers position and back ground information, section 2 covers skills and inventory and section 3 covers skills.

a. Section 1 covers age group, gender, qualifications, experience in paint industry

b. Section 2 covers training, which organizations used for training, if they were happy with training.

c. Section 3 covers skill in participants organizationd. Section 4 covers general training and/or skills in participant’s

organization.

Sections 3 and 4 contains open question related to the research problem. This was used to get what is important for the individual companies and to establish whether they have similar needs.

3.3 Data collection

The research questionnaire was distributed to 30 paint manufacturing related companies technical staff using email and the respond had to submit electronically. Only 19 company’s technical staff responded. A copy of the questionnaire is attached as appendix (“A”, 1-5)

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Chapter 4 Data analysis and interpretation

4.1 Introduction

Questionnaires were sent to 30 manufacturers and raw material suppliers in the paint industry. Question in the questionnaire was targeted at get information around training, what type of training being offered. How many people are doing the paint technology causes offered by SAPITI? How effective these are the training programs

4.2 Summary of results

4.2.1 Age distribution in paint Industry

In the graph of age distribution (figure 1) in the paint industry it shown that most people employed in technical positions fall within the age group 26 to 55.

Age 18-25 Age 26-35 Age 36-45 Age 46- 55 Age > 550%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

Age Distribution

Age Distribution

Figure 1 Age distribution in paint industry.

This means that paint companies must start focusing on training young people in the paint industry. Technicians, especially the young, must focus on gaining knowledge from their superiors and try to complete most of the SAPITI courses on offer.

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4.2.2 Qualification Analysis

Below Grade 12 Grade 12 Graduate Post graduate0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Figure 2: Qualification Analysis

Most Technical personnel in the paint industry do have a B.Sc degree in Chemistry.

4.2.3 Experience in the Paint Industry

Most of the people in the paint industry will stay at their company of choice for long periods unless they are not satisfied with the company.

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<5 < 10 <15 <20 <25 <300%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

Figure 3: experience distribution

4.2.4 SAPMA modules completed

Mod 1 Mod 2 Mod 3 Mod 4 Mod 5 Mod 6 Mod 7 Mod 8 mod 110%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

% tech complete SAPMA course

A high percentage of people completed module 1 and module 2 which they assume is enough to work in the paint industry or understand basics of paint technology.

4.2.5 Satisfaction with current training providers

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complet

ely sa

tisfied

mostly s

atisfi

ed

partiall

y sati

sfied

mostly d

issati

sfied

complet

ely disa

tisfied

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Most people that received training are most satisfied with the training programs and their staff can apply the knowledge gained.

4.2.6 Scarce skills listed from responded

Skill Number of respondents

Formulation knowledge 19Raw material knowledge 18Problem solving skills 16Presentation and report writing skills

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Project Management skills 5Technical ability 19Indentifying the right people 3Mathematic skills 3

100% of the people identified that formulation knowledge, raw material knowledge, problem solving skills as the critical skill shortage in their organizations and paint industry.

Chapter 5 Findings, conclusion and recommendation

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5.1 Finding

It is quite clear from the information gathered in the previous chapter, skills development has become an important factor for companies to develop and grow with future technology.

According to Frost & Sullivan, many paint companies are unable to expand at the rate of current demand primarily due to the legislative changes, growing customer awareness about health hazards as well a reduction in skills in the local market.

Also, when communicating with different paint industry representative, some come paint companies have recalled technician from retirement to function as technical advisors for product developments and to train laboratory technicians in the work place.

Also, The open question was answered very similar, showing that the companies experiencing the same skills needs.

5.2 Conclusion

In general it can be concluded that the paint industry technical skills are very limited. This is mainly due to the lack of technical ability, formulation skills and raw material knowledge. Most companies are sending technicians for training at SAPITI, but most of them still lack the know how to apply to their daily work routine.

Also, some smaller companies that do not have technical trained or experienced paint chemist, depends most on the raw material suppliers to supply paint formulations for future developments, but they still lack the problem solving skills to handling formulation malfunction and hence they have to revert to raw material suppliers to solve problems.

Another concern highlighted by people involved in training of paint technician is that: Although people have completed all the SAPMA modules, they don’t always have the ability or opportunity to apply the theoretical knowledge that they have learnt. Except for certain individuals/ organizations most raw materials suppliers are no better equipped to give out knowledge to their customers.

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Also, major concerns from the data collected are that most Chemist fall within the age group 35-55 years old group. This means if these Paint chemist are not passing knowledge on to the sub-ordinates or technicians, the paint chemist know how will die out with time.

5.3 Recommendation

The government has listed paint knowledge and paint manufacturing know how as a critical scarce skill. SAPMA together CHIETA are busy developing a training strategy and training program to help alleviated the skills shortage.

I recommend that paint companies in the meanwhile send their technicians to attend all of the SAPMA training courses and allow this training time to gain technical knowhow.

Also, at least once a month OCCA, and (now and then) SERVOCHEM do have technical talks on current development and they are allowing manufactures to attend their training programs. Technicians must be encouraged to attend these talks as part of their training and uses this platform for networking and expand their formulation ideas..

References

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