Minister of Technology and Science Felix Mutati has advocated quality skills training that responds to the needs of the industry.
Officiating at the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of the open air Automotive workshop at Northern Technical College in Ndola, Mr. Mutati said good infrastructure and equipment is key in skills development.
He disclosed that the Automotive workshop project is valued at around $4,000,000.
“We are going to have modern workshops, fully equipped. Not only physical but also at the intellectual level and for us to be equipped at the intellectual level, let us design a programme for our lecturers at NORTEC to upgrade their skills, including secondment to other companies and countries where they can be better and strongly equipped to deliver the skills,” Mr. Mutati said.
“So we need to have a deliberate programme. We also need to have a deliberate programme where our students can have exposure to the real industry. They can go and mingle with industry, including the lecturers so that you know what industry wants and you train to respond to the demands of industry,” he said.
Mr. Mutati further challenged NORTEC to become a center of excellence for heavy equipment repair in Africa.
NORTEC Principal Martin Kasonso hailed the construction of the workshop being funded by the Swedish government, UNIDO in partnership with VOLVO.
This is very good news. This government wants to deliver to its people but there are some determined to frustrate it.
Now do some more ground breaking at ZIT, ZASTI, Lukasha Trades, Lusaka Trades, Mukuba Trades….these should revive artisan programs, bricklayers, electricians etc…missing from the equation in Zed….Mutolo take heed do some groundbreaking for all Agricultural Colleges we need to revive them so we can shift from copper…
It’s important for those in charge to understand the history of NORTEC and CBU. CBU started as Zambia Institute of Technology at the now Luanshya Trades School. Both were meant to respond to the need for skilled in the mines. The biggest players in both were the industry but today civil servants sit to develop the curriculum and that’s why there’s a distinct disconnect between their graduates and the industry. Even as Mutati launches this workshop he must ask whether there was input from industrial stakeholders