�Local Mining Houses Content With Students Trained By GIZ�

Chakalisa Dube | Monday November 23, 2015 11:14

The trio, GIZ, BCM and government, through the Department of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (DTVET) have helped fund courses in Heavy Plant Engineering, Industrial Electric, Maintenance Fitting and Machining, Fabrication and Welding, and Instrumentation and Millwright.The students are enrolled at Botswana College of Engineering and Technology (BCET) and Francistown College of Technical and Vocational Education (FCTVE).

“We have close to 10 mining companies that offer our students on the job training.  All of them have indicated that they are content with the quality of students we produce. “In fact some of them have so far indicated that they would like to absorb the students on a full-time basis after they have completed their studies in 2017,” said the training coordinator, Jurgen Foerster in an interview yesterday. Currently a combined 100 students funded by the GIZ, BCM and the Botswana government are at BCET and FCTVE.The courses, according to the coordinator, cost nearly P6.5 million a year for the 100 students and the three parties share equal costs towards financing the course.

“ The agreement to train students will end in 2017, but as the GIZ we want to continue with the initiative,” said Foerster. The coordinator indicated that next year January an additional 100 students would be admitted for the 2016 intake. DTVET acting director, Mildred Boduwe said they intend to foster and grow their partnership with BCM and GIZ  as well as attracting new strategic partners.“The mining industry in the country is still emerging hence it needs more skilled workers. 

We want to maintain strategic partnerships we have and attract new partners from the mining sector in order to train more people to work in the industry.” She also urged local companies in non-mining sectors to partner with government to train their existing and new workers.

“If companies in other sectors partner with the government to train workers for themselves, then they will improve their competitiveness, which will benefit the country,” she said.  In 2013 the government, BCM and GIZ entered into an agreement to support courses that would help bridge the skills shortage in the mining sector. For years, companies in the mining sector have bemoaned shortage of skills in the country. This has resulted in the mining companies being forced to hire expatriates...