09 Dec 2019

Training institutions and industry collaborations can encourage innovation.

Therefore, Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr Thulaganyo Segokgo, said training institutions would not produce competent graduates without the collaboration and input of the industry.

He was speaking at the Roads Training Centre (RTC) graduation ceremony for 37 students who completed their Roads Technician Certificate course and 21 graduates who pursued Highway Engineering Technician.

He said as a country, ‘we need a competent workforce that can deliver not only products and services, but world class quality products and services that meet the expectations and standards of the consumers.’

Mr Segokgo exalted RTC for having trained some of the most renowned engineers in the country.

He called upon the industry not only to open doors to their learners, but also for the trainers because the quality of training and the training outputs depended on those who delivered the training.

“On that note, I call upon RTC management to engage the industry on this aspect as well so that trainers’ knowledge and skills are not limited to the classroom teaching alone, but they are also aware of the current developments, knowledge, practices and technologies out in the industry,” he said. 

RTC Student Representative Council president, Mr Innocent Montshiwa, said RTC faced a challenge of shortage of academic staff, with the training centre predominately depending on part-time lectures, who were never easy to consult with since they had full-time commitments elsewhere.

He said RTC had five professional academic staff and five technical staff to run the diploma and certificate programmes. 

He noted that the most experienced and accredited academic staff the centre used to have had been moved to roads department maintenance to go and patch potholes somewhere in Botswana, while they needed them in classrooms.

“I challenge the leadership of the Ministry of Transport and Communication and roads department to look into this issue as a matter of urgency, as it has negative consequences on our academics and overall performance,” he said.

In appraisal, he said, RTC graduates had shown how competent they could be despite the obstacles they had gone through as students.

Furthermore, Mr Montshiwa encouraged them to display the same commitment and perseverance at their workplaces and to continue craving for learning and applying their knowledge in the uplifting of the country’s economy and the betterment of the society.

In addition, he said, the issue of transition of RTC to BIUST had been on the table for over a decade.

“Some of our graduates did their certificate programs, went to work, came back to do their diploma and still found all the talk and nothing happening. I wish to call upon the ministry and Roads Department to fast-track this transition,” he said.

Mr Montshiwa said the stagnation of the transition was having serious negative implications on the school itself and on their learning.

He also said RTC was misplaced under the Ministry of Transport and Communications, whose mandate covered the formulation of ICT and transport policies and coordinating their implementation. 

He said the ministry had put RTC way down the pecking order of their priorities as academics were not even mentioned in the mission or vision of the ministry.

Highway engineering technician diploma and roads technician certificate overall best performers were Stanley Kesalefa and Mpho Merementsi respectively.

They shared sentiments that hard work and perseverance pays despite all the hardships. Ends