Areas and Places

React24 launches first black female owned and accredited plumbing college

From left to right: David Le Roux, Celeste Le Roux (React24 and React Training College), Charmaine Jampies (College Directory & Principle), Shawn Theunissen (CEO at Property Point).
From left to right: David Le Roux, Celeste Le Roux (React24 and React Training College), Charmaine Jampies (College Directory & Principle), Shawn Theunissen (CEO at Property Point).

Property Wheel recently attended the React Training College launch, the first black female owned and CETA accredited plumbing college.

Situated in Millennium Business Park in Parow Industria, Cape Town, the college boasts a competency-based modular training (CBMT) system, a first for this field. This allows courses to be taken as needed and the flexible learning program and recognition of previous skills make up-skilling easier with certification only taking six months as opposed to three years. The college will also cover a full range of skills from basic short courses to advanced skills.  

At the launch, the Director and Principal  Charmaine Jampies and recently named Standard Bank Top Women of the Year Awards 2020 finalist, Celeste Margo Le Roux, CEO and co-founder at React24, shared their wisdom about training craftsmen for construction and built environment industries. The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Patricia De Lille, also shared her congratulatory message and well wishes via video.

Other speakers included Shawn Theunissen, CEO of Property Point – the Growthpoint initiative which is dedicated to unlocking opportunities for SMEs operating in South Africa’s property sector, Professor Shirley Zinn, a well-known HR, transformation and leadership expert and, German Mphalele, the Enterprise Development Unit Manager at the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB).

The launch is the culmination of years of hard work and dreams for React24 – a national specialist company that offers maintenance services to the residential, industrial, commercial, and retail sectors.

I am passionate about changing the narrative within the South African built environment and construction industry. React Training College was inspired by our mission to provide real, genuine, and sustainable life-changing opportunities for those in the plumbing trade and offer them an affordable way to master their craft” commented Celeste.

In her twenty years of experience in the construction industry and built industry, Celeste Margo Le Roux has learnt that education and skills development is key to success. She knows that empowering tradesmen to master their craft creates a sense of pride in their work, which ultimately leads to a higher quality project. She hopes to see females attend the college too saying:

Because our unemployment is so high, there are so many mothers sitting at home. Imagine if they had a skill. They could put food on the table. I believe that women are becoming stronger and their voices are being heard. The numbers and the statistics are still very low, but we are still making an impact, however small it may be. I believe that mentorship, between women, in the construction industry is so important. We have to stop viewing the construction industry as just male-dominated – we need to change this narrative and to break this stereotype.”

Celeste and her team plan to occupy more units within Millennium Business Park to introduce additional trades such as electrical, painting and tiling with an eye on branching out in Johannesburg. They will also be looking at introducing their college to the Cape Flats and the surrounding townships.

React Plumbing Training College is now open for intake via their contact portal on React Training College.