Civil Engineering May 2022 | Vol 30 No 4

52 May 2022 Civil Engineering PROTEC’S STRUCTURE Today PROTEC comprises: Q Q Head office based in Randburg, Johannesburg Q Q Nine branches Q Q Seven in KwaZulu-Natal (Tongaat, Inanda and KwaMashu, Mandeni, Stanger, Umlazi, Umbogintwini, and Umkomaas) Q Q One in Gauteng (Soweto) Q Q One in Mpumalanga (Nelspruit) Q Q Eight projects Q Q Four in Gauteng (AngloGold Ashanti Diepsloot, Zutari Mamelodi, General Electric Ivory Park, and Telkom Tshwane) Q Q Three in Eastern Cape (Dedisa Motherwell, Altron Dimbaza, and Telkom Gqeberha) Q Q One in Northern Cape (Transnet School Support Programme) Q Q One in Limpopo (Growthpoint Teacher Development Programme) Q Q National Post School Programme that operates from head office, with national reach. PROTEC employs 20 full-time staff members in Johannesburg and seven in the provincial branches, which are managed by locally employed branch managers who are accountable to local com- munity management committees. PROTEC projects are managed by local education centres in partnership with PROTEC nationally. Also key to PROTEC’s successful delivery of its programme are the approximately 190 part-time tutors and facilitators in its employ. PROTEC IN THE PANDEMIC As with NPOs the world over, PROTEC was not spared the impact of the pandemic, which came at a time when critical prob- lems faced by the education system were not resolved – and they remain unresolved. These issues relate in part to the accumula- tion in content gaps over several years, with efforts to quickly close them only happening in the matric year. Moodley says PROTEC believes this situation calls for “a com- prehensive overhaul of the education system to ensure a steady reduction in knowledge gaps throughout schooling years, and full preparedness for pandemics in the future.” PROTEC’s response to the overwhelming restrictions imposed at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 was immediate. Moodley explains, “We quickly adapted our resources and equipped our beneficiaries and facilitators to cope with the lockdown restrictions. This helped us create an improved hybrid learner excellence programme model which was introduced in 2021, and included developing an e-learning platform and deploying tablets, data and power banks where needed.” Notwithstanding some issues that the new hybrid model brought with it, Moodley says the PROTEC team remains resolute. Balan Moodley, CEO of PROTEC, with the Corporate Livewire South Africa Prestige 2020/2021 Best NPO in Education Award won by PROTEC PROTEC Tongaat Branch’s young engineers in the making