Volkswagen South Africa (VWSA) has shrugged off the global troubles facing the automotive industry with news that it has opened three new production training centres at its vehicle production plant in Uitenhage.

The group has invested R30-million in the construction of the three training centres and developing new training content, all of which forms part of a new production academy.

David Powels, managing director of VWSA, said the company is using the current weakness in the market as an opportunity to increase its training efforts, “so we're in a better position when the upswing comes, and we're more competitive".

Powels added that he expects to see some return to growth in the South African automotive industry in 2010, after a tough 2009. He noted, however, that the global market is not expected to recover before 2011, or even 2012.

The announcement today comes on top of a R400-million skills development programme that VWSA announced in 2006, and the R3-billion investment in the Uitenhage plant announced last year.