11 Jun 2015

Botswana will soon see a substantial number of skilled personnel from reputable German companies coming here to impart skills to the labour force in various fields so as to create a highly competitive and skilled workforce.

This noble initiative came  courtesy of German Engineering Association (VDMA) whose president is in the country to meet different stakeholders in a quest to present VDMA skills initiative aiming at a smooth transition from apprenticeship to employment.

Addressing members of the media in Gaborone on Tuesday June 9, VDMA president, Dr Reinhold Festge said Germany as one of the leading industrialised countries in the world, with a proven track record of best industrial machinery and highly skilled personnel in all areas of production, would like to impact its skills to Botswana and other Southern African countries in the few years. 

He noted that the association would like to support German companies already active in Africa, those with concrete investment plans as well as their local partners by providing sophisticated training for technical staff. 

Dr Festge who is in the country for the first time, said they have since realised that many African countries were using the state of the art machinery manufactured and bought from Germany, but the problem was that most of company workers were not familiar with its usage nor were there qualified personnel to service the machines when they encounter some problems.

He said in this instance, local companies would after a thorough and rigorous in-house and vocational training be in a position to have specialised employees who would be able to use and service the machines internally, thus reducing costs of calling external mechanics to attend to the problem whenever the need arises.

VDMA represents over 3 100, mostly medium-sized companies in the capital goods industry, making it the largest industry association in Europe. ENDS