Wirral-based Lift-Turn-Move (LTM) has just staged two Motor Schools in Johannesburg South Africa.

The first was at leading lighting and rigging sales company DWR Distribution and the other at the country's largest rental and production facility, Gearhouse South Africa.

LTM's John Jones taught his first South African Motor School in 1999 at Gearhouse and has returned 3 times since then to do Motor Schools. He says, "I really enjoy the energy of South Africa. The thirst for knowledge here is incredible, and it's great to see such a wide cross section of people wanting to take their technical knowledge and understanding of such an important part of the industry forward".

DWR charged 1900 ZAR per person for the 2-day course and could have easily filled the 18 places three times over! "I thought there would be a good response" says Duncan Riley, "But even I was surprised by the take up and interest". Company representatives and individuals travelled from all over the country - including from Cape Town, Durban and Sun City to attend the DWR course, representing all areas of the entertainment industry including concert touring, corporate events, theatres and live entertainment venues.

The motor schools took the standard format of 16 places - with a couple of extras squeezed in! They were presented by LTM's Dave Ward, who did the majority of the technical talk, while Jones threw in anecdotes and stories about usage!

The School provided the usual no-nonsense comprehensive overview of the standard 1 tonne Lodestar motor - an extremely popular product in the South African market. It also familiarized attendees with the operational theory, design philosophy, safety aspects, internal workings and trouble-shooting methods involved.

It was the first time many of the attendees had been offered the chance to strip a hoist down to its component parts - and then re-build and operate it, in the process unravelling the mysteries of the machine! A full set of manuals and course notes were also provided and eagerly devoured.

The Gearhouse Motor School was co-ordinated by Project manager and Head of Rigging Pieter Joubert, and was attended by a selection of staff from Gearhouse SA, In2 Structures, the group's set building company and their Learnership programme students.

Gearhouse SA has nearly 300 Lodestar Motors and has been buying them from John Jones since 1996. They also have a huge number of crew who do rigging, so "It's always good for them to do formal training" says Joubert, adding that the last Motor School was a massive success, and that demand for people to work with motors has grown massively in recent years.

"The Schools provide a good exchange of information" says Joubert "And there are also benefits over and above the actual training for the company. It means we can discuss problems and share experiences that really benefit people on the ground."

He further comments that it's great that a company from the UK can travel to South Africa and make a difference.

For the more experienced Gearhouse riggers, LTM did an additional one day course covering ½ tonne hoists. This was extremely interesting to Jones as it was the first course LTM had presented. ‘' The hoists are different to the 1t unit- maybe we should be running separate schools''.

Jones observed that compared to his earlier visits to the country, the general level of knowledge and experience has vastly increased, along with the numbers of black people participating in the training.