06 Jul 2021

Ministry of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development will not consider offering Borehole Mechanics programme at Matsheng and Kang brigades, Parliament heard Monday. 

In response to a parliamentary question, Minister Mpho Balopi explained that Borehole Mechanics was one of the legacy (old) programmes under review. 

Mr Balopi said qualifications for revamped programmes had been submitted to Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA) for accreditation, hence Kang brigade would offer both Borehole and Auto Mechanics concurrently once the accreditation process was finalised. 

He, however, indicated that the infrastructure at Matsheng Brigade could not accommodate any more programmes due to the restricted floor area, which allowed only 16 learners for Auto Mechanics at a time. 

To build a competitive and productive workforce, the ministry will review the curricula of the brigades, which were last reviewed in 1997. 

He said currently, there were 28 learning programmes under development, out of which seven were newly developed, 21 reviewed while three were renamed. 

He indicated that introduction of new programmes at any of the brigades would be determined by the capacity of a particular institution. 

He added that the ultimate objective, in terms of the ongoing efforts of skills development transformation, was to privatise the brigades. 

The minister was responding to a question from MP for Kgalagadi North, Ms Talita Monnakgotla, who wanted to know if the ministry would consider offering Borehole Mechanics at the two brigades. ENDS