Two South African Roadies Association (SARA) trainers, Thulani Manyoni and Naledi Makhetha, recently joined SARA President, Freddie Nyathela, in attending The National Skills Academy for Creative and Cultural Skills Annual Industry Conference 2013. The conference took place at the newly built Backstage Centre, a technical training and rehearsal facility in Essex, on 6 and 7 March.
The two-day conference saw key decision makers from across the creative and cultural sectors come together to discuss the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead and the power of collaboration.
According to Nyathela the purpose of SARA’S visit was to attend the educational sessions; to network and engage with industry professionals regarding technical and production knowledge, and skills development issues. Furthermore, the visit was aimed at creating better opportunities for the technical and production oriented youth of South Africa.
“The visit afforded us an opportunity to meet with the officials and members of the National Skills Academy, to consolidate the working relations, and to tour their newly built Backstage Centre,’ Nyathela stated.
SARA also used the opportunity to meet up with the officials from the UK’s Backstage Academy to have further discussions about their unique “Foundation Degree in Live Events Production’. This is in line with the association’s mission to address the need to have such a qualification registered on the South African National Qualifications Framework, or to develop a similar qualification.
