PathLensSOUTH AFRICA · CLEARER PATHS. BRIGHTER OPTIONS.

Clay Production Machine Operator

OFO Code: 718101

Last checked 7 October 2026

PATHLENS

1. Occupation identity

OFO code
718101
Occupation
Clay Production Machine Operator
Classification
OFO 2021
Major group
PLANT AND MACHINE OPERATORS AND ASSEMBLERS
Unit group
7181 · Glass and Ceramics Plant Operators

Official description
Glass and ceramics plant operators operate and monitor kilns, furnaces and other machinery and equipment used in the manufacture of glass, ceramics, porcelain, tiles or bricks. They operate machines to anneal, harden or decorate glass and ceramics.

More official OFO detail

Specialisations: Porcelain Turner, Pottery / Porcelain Mould Maker, Kiln Operator (Pottery and Porcelain), Brick Maker, Tile Maker, Clay Mixing Machine Operator, Slip Caster, Brick Extruder Operator, Brick and Tile Kiln Man, Kiln Operator (Brick and Tile)

  • Operating and monitoring machines for making glaze or abrasives
  • Setting and operating press machines to mould ceramic articles from moist clay
  • Operating hand press to mould glass into required shape
  • Tending hot- or cold-end spray equipment used to coat glassware with surface hardener
  • Operating and monitoring glass-making furnaces to make glass by melting and fusing pre-mixed ingredients
  • Operating and monitoring kilns which bake pottery, porcelain ware and bake bricks and tiles
  • Operating and maintaining finishing machines to grind, drill, sand, bevel, decorate, wash or polish glass or glass products
  • Operating drawing kiln to process molten glass into continuous sheet of flat glass
  • Operating machines to mix clay with water to knead it into a suitable plastic condition or semi-liquid form for making ceramic products
  • Operating and monitoring machines which extrude molten glass to form fibreglass filaments
  • Operating and maintaining machines that press or blow molten glass in moulds to form or shape containers, such as bottles, jars and drinking glasses
  • Operating and monitoring floating-glass production plant

2. Demand status

Demand evidence unavailable

No approved governed OIHD graph relationship is available on this deployment for this OFO code.

PathLens does not fall back to legacy specimen demand flags when governed evidence is unavailable.

A national demand signal is not a promise of a vacancy in your town.

3. Salary evidence

No approved governed salary observation or sourced snapshot salary record is available for this OFO code yet.

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4. Quick EE check

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5. Qualification

Qualification evidence pending.

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6. Study funding

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A funding match will only be shown once a recognised qualification or study route has been identified.

7. Industry, sector and provincial context

National occupation classification. Industry and provincial context are shown only where a separate official source supports the link.

No source-backed modern OFO↔SIC 7 industry link has been ingested for this occupation yet. PathLens does not infer one from the job title.

Official DHET / SETA activity link

The OFO 2021 workbook explicitly links this occupation to the following legacy SETA SIC/activity code. This is preserved as published and is not treated as a Stats SA SIC 7 code.

Browse the official South African industry classification →

8. Next steps — official links

9. Decision tools

10. Sources for this page

  • DHET Organising Framework for Occupations (OFO 2021) · Ingested · identity spine active
    Canonical OFO identity data has been ingested and validated. 1511 occupation records are recorded in the ingest artifact.
  • DHET Occupations in High Demand · Validated pipeline · graph publication not confirmed
    The governed OIHD pipeline is active, but a successful populated graph run is not currently confirmed on this deployment.
  • Critical Skills List · Monitored · occupation linkage pending
    Official migration sources are monitored, but PathLens does not infer visa eligibility or occupation-level eligibility from monitoring alone.
  • QCTO qualifications and occupational certificates · Candidate staging ready · not published
    Qualification staging and human review are implemented; no qualification↔OFO relationship is published without an explicit source identifier or governed human review.
  • Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey · Acquisition active · no approved evidence on this deployment
    Official QLFS artifact discovery is active. Dataset-specific schema, weighting, reliability and review gates remain separate; a discovered artifact or executable estimator does not itself create a public claim.
  • SETA Sector Skills Plans / hard-to-fill vacancy tables · Partial · explicit source links only
    PathLens preserves explicit source-backed SETA/activity links where present and does not infer modern SIC relationships from occupation titles.
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