WHITE RIVER – Hope were raised as the MEC for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Mr Eric Kholwane visits the Advanced Furniture Technology Centre (Furntech) which is the only centre in Ehlanzeni region.

The centre provides carpentry skills to ten businesses housed in one roof for a period of 39 months. “We provide them with training in furniture sector support them as we have machines and offer upholstery business. We are looking at post incubation support and the challenge comes with their placement after the incubation period,” explained Mr Khodani Rhadzirani.

The trainees specialised in wood furniture including wall units, garage doors, house doors, chairs and other wooden pieces.offers support to existing and start up businesses by providing incubation facilities for aspiring entrepreneurs with skills in the furniture manufacturing industry. He adds that Furntech

Business Technology Incubation Model has been designed to to assist and nurture existing and potential entrepreneurs through the challenging early stages of developing and growing the business.”We ensure that emerging and existing small business entrepreneurs in the woodworking and furniture industries survive the start-up period and grow into confident, successful business people who are well grounded financially and secure in their knowledge of how to run an independent productive business,” he said. It was also heard that most of the trainees find it difficult to start their own businesses after training due to lack of working equipment.

Addressing the trainees Kholwane said its government’s aim to see the trainees creating job opportunities for themselves and achieving a better life . “You have unite, work cooperatively with each other and explore business opportunities from other countries,”. He added that since the beginning of the project 150 people had been trained . He also visited Mungalees Furniture Makers which specialises in low cost furnitures.

He revealed that the department had set aside R625 000 to train 15 more people in the Nkalanga region. “Moving forward we will put a tracking mechanism in place so we can know where are they and how thy do after their training,”