06 Nov 2023

Collaboration between industry players and Selebi Phikwe Technical College (SPTECO) will result in the economic development of the town.

This was said by Assistant Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Beauty Manake when addressing SPTECO learners and staff recently.

Ms Manake said for the economy of Selebi Phikwe to thrive, it needed skilled labour to operate machinery in the industry and drive it.

She thus urged industry players to join hands with SPTECO to deliberate on the skills they needed in their respective industries so that at the end of training, some learners would be absorbed for employment.

Ms Manake also urged learners to register own companies and utilise the skills they acquired during training to create employment.

“Government cannot afford to create employment for everybody. Government empowers its citizens through education by making provision for free education from primary school up to tertiary level and it is high time the nation took the initiative to create employment for other Batswana,” she said.

She further explained that government had gone an extra mile to ratify trade treaties to promote exportation of local goods to foreign markets.

“We want to deal in textile but the question is do we have the right skills and sufficient cotton to support our textile industries? This is why we want to address the challenge of skill-mismatch and produce industry ready graduates. Government has already played a part in changing your lives, now it is upon you to change the environment you are living in,” she said.

For his part, Selebi Phikwe mayor, Mr Lucas Modimana urged the business community in the area to support SPTECO by engaging its learners.

Mr Modimana also urged learners not to look for employment but register their own companies to produce goods and services that could help transform the economy of the town and create employment for other Batswana.

He further encouraged them to form cooperatives and create jobs rather than trade individually.

Selebi-Phikwe Town Council deputy town clerk, Mr Oganne Gontse explained that the council was doing its best to collaborate with various institutions in the town.

Mr Gontse said the council managed to pave the road between the Botswana Defence Force camp and Botswana Prisons Service by engaging labour from the latter.

“The same can be done with SPTECO. The council had some broken down vehicles that learners from SPTECO could fix. The council would make an arrangement with the technical college management to deliberate further on the issue,” he said.

SPTECO student representative council president, Mr Ben Moshokwa thanked Ms Manake and the town leadership for visiting the institution.

“This is the first time that learners are addressed by the minister. Technical colleges and brigades are ignored by government because the environment in these institutions is different from that in local universities, including the learners’ allowances,” he said.

He opined that with government and private sector support, SPTECO as an industry could easily deliver on government expectations by creating jobs for the nation.

Moshokwa urged them to visit the institution frequently in order to address learners’ needs and ensure that they also played a part in developing the economy of the country. Ends