The Missing Decade For Piano Tuning In South Africa - Skills Shortage Threatening The Industry

In the whole of South Africa there are only about 50 qualified (sighted and visually impaired) piano technicians, with an average age of between 50 and 70 years. The only official training of piano tuners, which started at the Institute for the Blind in Worcester in 1884, has been discontinued in 1998 due to financial constraints. This left the qualified technicians without early retirement options and no new recruits to train in the piano tuning industry for the current decade.

The training of a piano technician involves training in tuning, regulation, repairs and restoration of different kinds of upright and grand pianos. It is of utmost importance that technicians receive proper training as they work with delicate, hugely expensive equipment which often has sentimental value to their owners.

Stakeholders in the piano industry, lead by the South African Association of Professional Piano Tuners (SAAPPT), recognised the need to register a profession for Piano tuners and restorers and engaged in a joint venture with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) in 2004 with the intent to generate industry standards, register a profession and establish a learnership for piano technicians. Unfortunately this process is uncomfortably slow and was suddenly halted by SAQA due to a lack of funds. There will still be no training in the foreseeable future as the SAAPPT can not finish the process on its own.

Due to the increase in the population and economic growth in South Africa, there are more pianos that need servicing every year. As any piano needs regular tuning and occasional repair work, the workload increases constantly while the skilled people who can supply the services decreases. It is therefore obvious that in a period of 5-10 years from now, almost every practicing piano technician in SA will experience a backlog (ranging between 3-6 months) which would lead to a lot of impatient and unsatisfied clients. In fact, some of the top established technicians are already experiencing that backlog, while clients in rural areas experience difficulty in tracking down a piano technician who is willing to travel to their area. Technicians are concentrated in the large cities where they have enough regular clients. The piano businesses cannot expand by hiring more technicians to help carry the workload as there are no skilled people available to hire.

"What a profitable position" you might think, but this situation can do much more harm than good. Even current clients will soon not be able to have their pianos tuned often due to the growing demand for piano services and hardly any competition in the piano industry. The fees for piano services will rise radically which might create an opportunity for unqualified technicians to eventually ruin the profession. There are already a few unqualified individuals operating in the country (often responsible for creating more work due to their lack of knowledge and skills).

The next Annual General Meeting of SAAPPT will take place at 9:30 on 22 March 2008 in 36 Jeanette Street, Brackenfell, Cape Town. The issues regarding the training will be one of the key agenda items.

Read more about the piano industry in South Africa at
www.sapianotuners.co.za

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image of a grand piano at the South African Association of Professional Piano Tuners

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Created by Kallie Swanepoel Piano Tuners
Pretoria South Africa
Last Modified on 28 March 2010
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