Saw Doctor

The purpose of this qualification is to prepare a learner to operate as a Saw Doctor. A Saw Doctor refurbishes, sharpens and maintains saw blades, tooling and tool room equipment and calibrates cutting equipment to ensure optimum cut quality. A qualified learner will be able to: • Repair, sharpen, fit, and maintain cutting tooling. • Calibrate, maintain and operate cutting tool servicing machinery and equipment. • Set up cutting equipment.

The Saw Doctor trade is a technical competence applicable to and required by the forestry industry but it is also very useful to the meat-processing subsector within general manufacturing. The development of a formal qualification, as opposed to the current inadequate skills programmes, will be critical to improve the skills base and performance of various economic sectors that produce various timber products for both local and export markets. The industry has identified a variety of critical and scarce skills needed to address the increasing skills shortages and their impact on the industry. Saw Doctor and related skills are scare and in high demand, and the sector is currently relying on an increasingly smaller pool of experts to service the industry. The qualification will draw learners from the current pool of employees that individual companies have trained in-house as well as new employees interested to secure jobs within the industry. The current employees will receive the critically important theoretical training and benefit from a more structured practical and workplace training. A more trained workforce will enhance productivity, reduce wastage and incidences. It will also improve the quality of the service provided by Saw Doctors. The qualification will ensure, job sustainability and employability of qualified learners within a very competitive market. The majority of qualified Saw Doctors are aging and there is a need to attract school leavers to continue the expertise. This represents the reality of the past and provides significant possibilities to transform the work environment. This transformation is legacy-related as the majority of qualified Saw Doctors are White males. It is, however, also related to the restoration of formalised quality standards within a previously ignored highly technical scarce skill occupation. The Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) of the skills embedded in the qualification will reward those proficient and capable with a qualification that will ensure a wider scope of employment opportunities in the sectors specified. The Saw Doctor as a trade embodies a progression of accumulated skills and expertise, thereby opening career pathing opportunities and possible articulation. This highlights the need for part- qualifications: which would ensure a combination of knowledge and employable skills covering functional areas such as Saw Filer; Saw Setter; Profile Grinder; Saw Maintainer and Benchman. This trade as the exit qualification should address the needs of new entrants in the labour market in the same way as it would capacitate current employees already performing the function to aspire to higher job opportunities. Qualified learners will progress to management qualifications or cross-sectoral qualifications as specified in the articulation section. In a sector, which holds the promise of economic growth, the qualified saw doctor will bring much-needed skills to the industry. It also has the potential of entrepreneurial opportunities to consult, train and import international services and product into a burgeoning market. Provision is also being made for proficiencies recognised by industry as employment opportunities in this occupation. These are: • Saw Filer. • Benchman. • Head Saw Doctor. During the development of this occupational qualification, the above mentioned proficiencies were provided for as part-qualifications.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL): RPL for access to the external integrated summative assessment: Accredited providers and approved workplaces must apply the internal assessment criteria specified in the related curriculum document to establish and confirm prior learning. Accredited providers and workplaces must confirm prior learning by issuing a statement of result or certifying a work experience record. RPL for access to the qualification: Accredited providers and approved workplaces may recognise prior learning against the relevant access requirements. Entry Requirements: The entry requirement for this qualification is: • Level 1 with Mathematics.

• Prepare, maintain and set up cutting tools and equipment for efficient saw mill operations.
• Maintain and operate the cutting tool and blades servicing machinery and equipment to produce a sharpened balance tool.