14 Aug 2017

Batswana have been called on to stop looking down on skills development institutions especially brigades as they could sustain the economy.

The director of skills development in the education ministry, Mr Carlos Kalaote said this during the handing over of Department of Roads Transport and Safety (DRTS) refurbished offices in Letlhakane on Wednesday.

Boteti Brigade and Selebi-Phikwe Technical College (SPETECO) collectively demolished and renovated DRTS offices in Letlhakane. The project consists of 15 offices, conference room, training room and a car park.

Mr Kalaote stated that Training with Production (TWP) was a tried and tested system and had been the lifeline and trademark for brigades movement, which distinguished them from other vocational training centres.

TWP gave trainees an opportunity to experience work in real life while at the same time acquiring skills that gave them an opportunity to fit in to employment without any need for re-training, he said.

He called on other government departments and agencies to support TWP initiative by giving jobs to brigades for training purposes.

Mr Kalaote noted that as much as brigades would have to recoup their expenses and make some savings to sustain training, it would be much more cost effective to engage brigades than any other agency.

He assured the public that quality produced by brigades was of an acceptable standard and said the department was working harder to improve it further.

He noted there was a share of skills employed during construction of the project, meaning that SPETECO concentrated on plumbing and painting whilst Boteti concentrated on bricklaying and plastering, carpentry and joinery, whilst welding and fabrication was done by Borehole Mechanics trainees.

Mr Kalaote said the estimated 12 months project which delayed by three months, started in December 2015 and was completed in March 2017.
Boteti Brigades, he said decided to respond to a request by DRTS to provide maintenance services by demolishing and renovating old offices which were dilapidated at a very minimal cost

to DRTS, compared to if they could have engaged private contractors for the same job.

The bids, he said would have been higher than the ceiling allocated to the department for their maintenance.

The ministry and Boteti Brigades mandate, he said, was to serve Boteti region with technical knowhow and expertise in areas of construction and mechanical fields.

The acting director of DRTS, Mr Bokhutlo Modukanele stated that engaging students in undertaking projects was crucial in cutting government expenses, hence the decision to pilot the project with brigades students.

Mr Modukanele said the country could benefit a lot from brigades, considering that a large number of government offices were not in a good state.ENDS