VerifiedFitter and turner is two trades written as one. A turner machines parts, mostly on a lathe and milling machine, working to tolerances measured in hundredths of a millimetre. A fitter assembles and maintains machinery, strips it when it fails and puts it back. Many people qualify in one and work as both.
It is a maintenance trade rather than a construction one, so the employers are factories, mines, mills, water treatment works and rail depots, and the work is continuous rather than project-based.
Where the trade sits
Fitting and turning falls under the merSETA metal and engineering chamber, and at a mine under the MQA, which takes student applications directly.
The route and the trade test rules are on our artisan bursaries page. In this trade the machining side of the test is where most candidates fail, so ask a prospective employer how much lathe time apprentices actually get.
What it leads to
A fitter and turner who adds the electrical side becomes a millwright, which is the better-paid dual trade. That is the most common next step, and several of the funders below run both apprenticeships.
Bursaries that fund fitting and turning
- Mining Qualifications Authority (MQA)
- merSETA
- Gibela
- Jindal Africa
- Westfalia Fruit
- Siza Water
- Silulumanzi
- Thebe Foundation Dr EJ Mabuza Scholarship
- Bridgestone
- Eastern Cape Department of Education
Municipal schemes fund trades for residents: City of Cape Town, Cape Winelands District Municipality, Ndwedwe Local Municipality.
See also our millwright bursaries, boilermaker bursaries and engineering bursaries pages.