Gearhouse spends 67 mins for Mandela

However, the lack of young "wanna-be" technicians coming into the industry with any sort of basic grounding is an area of concern throughout the Live Events Industry and an area that the company is attempting to address with gusto.

This year Gearhouse South Africa decided to align their existing in-house training program with the 67 Minutes for Mandela initiative - staging Open Days at their branches countrywide to showcase career opportunities in the Technical Productions Services industry.

Co-ordinated by Training Managers Garth Green (Johannesburg), Josef Van Schalkwyk (Durban) and Lisa Smit (Cape Town); the program targeted Grade 12 learners (or equivalent level) and consisted of 67minute interactive training slots of up to 100 students at a time.

This year's Technical Production Services Learnership students, currently in training at each branch, got a chance to test the knowledge they have acquired so far. They were instrumental in setting up the demonstration stages and explaining some of the components to the visitors, under the supervision of their instructors.

In addition, Gearhouse representatives from each division gave of their time to explain how their particular fields contribute to the overall success of a Live Event and to answer questions.

"Quite a few of our guests had never considered what goes on behind the scenes at an event like The Soccer World Cup Closing Ceremony, for example, let alone what goes into co-ordinating all the diverse technical elements," concluded Green, "It was quite an eye-opener for some of the youngsters, I think!"

Part of the day's events included an essay competition enabling a couple of entrants to win a place on the 2011 Gearhouse year-long course which begins in February.

For more information on Gearhouse SA visit www.gearhouse.co.za.