{"id":44103,"date":"2026-02-20T14:44:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T12:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/accidents\/taking-responsibility-for-our-trade-strengthening-the-panel-beater-curriculum\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T14:44:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T12:44:25","slug":"taking-responsibility-for-our-trade-strengthening-the-panel-beater-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/accidents\/taking-responsibility-for-our-trade-strengthening-the-panel-beater-curriculum\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking responsibility for our trade \u2013 strengthening the panel beater curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The motor body repair sector is evolving at an unprecedented pace. Modern vehicle construction, advanced lightweight materials, integrated ADAS systems and strict manufacturer repair protocols have fundamentally reshaped what it means to be a qualified panel beater. Yet, while workshop environments have transformed, elements of the formal training curriculum have not fully kept pace.<\/p>\n<p>According to Juan Hanekom, National Director of the South African Motor Body Repairers&rsquo; Association (SAMBRA), a proud association of the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI), this misalignment has increasingly placed pressure on repairers, OEMs and training providers.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The skills required in a modern repair environment are significantly more advanced than they were even a decade ago. We are working with high-strength steels, aluminium, composite materials and complex electronic systems that demand precision and specialised knowledge,&rdquo; says Hanekom. &ldquo;While supplementary OEM&#8230;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arrivealive.co.za\/news.aspx?s=1&#038;i=76511&#038;page=taking-responsibility-for-our-trade-strengthening-the-panel-beater-curriculum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more on Arrive Alive <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The motor body repair sector is evolving at an unprecedented pace. Modern vehicle construction, advanced lightweight materials, integrated ADAS systems and strict manufacturer repair protocols have fundamentally reshaped what it means to be a qualified panel beater. Yet, while workshop environments have transformed, elements of the formal training curriculum have not fully kept pace. According [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.arrivealive.co.za\/\/ckfinder\/userfiles\/images\/panelbeatingcourse.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2149],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-accidents"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.arrivealive.co.za\/\/ckfinder\/userfiles\/images\/panelbeatingcourse.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}