wo girls are shaking up predominantly male-dominated industrial occupations and doing so with flair and excellence. They offer encouragement to different girls to make their mark of their chosen career.
TIG welding surprise
Vuyisile Precious Kubheka is one of the latest hires at Werner Pumps, where she’s taken over the company’s TIG welding. She says that over time she has faced issues with people not trusting that she will be in a position to weld purely as a outcome of she’s a girl. “But once they see my work, they believe in me,” she says, with a smile.
TIG welding is challenging as a outcome of mistakes made are very obvious. Kubheka says a talented welder wants to have the ability to keep away from undercuts and loopholes and create a clean weld. She welds the hydraulic tanks for the high-pressure jetting and vacuuming models that Werner Pumps builds, which can not afford to have even the smallest hole or weak point, which might create safety issues.
Vuyisile Precious Kubheka – Werner Pumps
Kubheka got here to welding by default, after struggling to find stable work. In 2010, she had a possibility to pursue welding coaching, and has been making a dwelling as a welder since 2013. “I’d encourage different girls to suppose about welding as a career,” she says. “It’s a talent that folks need and I really have been capable of support my four youngsters.”
Wading into water reticulation
One of Werner Pumps’ customers, Vaneetha Govender, runs her personal firm referred to as Lupini Projects, which focuses on civil and venture engineering. As an entirely black-owned firm headed by one of the solely women in water reticulation in South Africa, Lupini Projects is making waves.
Its services embody unblocking sewer lines; cleaning dewatering and desludging at pump stations; level control actions and extraction of soil, sediment and foreign matter blocking manholes, gravity lines and bulk lines; pipeline building, manhole/junction packing containers, and formwork; water supply, sewer line, drainage system; earthworks and pipework; and building of civil works, together with steel works.
Govender is fast to note that while her skills lie in driving successful business strategies and initiatives, she has relied on input from people extra experienced than herself to navigate the water reticulation business. “Partnering with Werner has been a proxy to my success. They are well known within the water remedy trade, being a forerunner for many years. They bring technological advancement and expertise and revolutionary experience to my business,” she says.
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Her background is a mixture of technical experience in credit score and operations, enterprise optimisation and strategy implementation in JSE-listed corporations in financial companies and telecommunications. She has an MBA, an Honours diploma in Business Administration (PGDIP), a level in Business Leadership Management (BML), and an Advanced Diploma in Business Management from the London Business School.
The thought for Lupini Projects got here to her while doing her Masters degree. She was finding out social improvement and researching the depletion of worldwide water resources and its direct influence on quality of life and socioeconomic development.
Living near the Vaal River, Govender was aware of extremely publicised stories on sewer pollution within the space. This, coupled with the need to begin out her personal enterprise, drove her choice to turn into a half of the solution within the Vaal.
Trade secret was born in 2015. “I have three streams of business that I run throughout the company portfolio,” says Govender. “These are in the pharmaceutical, private protection equipment (PPE) and the water management industries.”
The water administration trade has a number of limitations to entry, together with excessive capital costs of equipment, access to finance for small companies and securing initial contracts, as well as meeting compliance necessities (which can be costly).
Govender has overcome these challenges by being prepared to “fail fast” and learn shortly, showcasing her capabilities to safe contracts, and investing in constructing, growing and empowering her team.
She’s also invested in high quality gear, together with two Werner Pumps Combination Truck Units. “Werner Pumps provides a superior high quality product that delivers to my company’s needs and helps my market reputation, if I had an inferior product my firm wouldn’t be in a position to deliver the excellent service, we delight ourselves on,” she says.
“The onsite assist I had when I purchased my first car was exemplary. Werner Pumps educated my complete team on the automobile and all its components right down to the oils required for each utility. They further absolutely licensed my workers as operators of the vehicle but most significantly I had on website assist for almost a week, with the trainer spending time with my group at their work sites, ensuring they use the car appropriately and that they’re comfy operating the car. Sebastian, the MD, has been a great support and it’s rare to have direct entry to the top of the corporate with whom you possibly can discuss your challenges and get ready solutions. Werner Pumps have made my transition into the water administration business much less daunting and their assist, coupled with the company’s expertise, has elevated my confidence to take on new challenges. They have actually empowered me as a girl in enterprise, and Lupini Projects is prepared to navigate the future knowing that we now have sound enterprise companions in the trade.”
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