24 Feb 2014

The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Ikwatlhaeng Bagopi has appreciated the role assumed by professional bodies to guarantee quality professionals by setting and enforcing standards of practice.

Speaking at the Department of Internship Programme Professional bodies breakfast meeting in Gaborone on February 20, he said the association and accreditation of the National Internship Programme would not only boost the time one spent in internship but also guaranteed additional qualification to protect their profession’s reputation.

Mr Bagopi said interns who were equipped with the right work base knowledge will grow to be productive and competitive skilled human resource for the economic growth of the country.

He highlighted that the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs through the Department of National Internship Programme had realised the inevitability of the collaboration between them and the professional bodies.

“Let us work together to make this partnership rewarding to contribute to knowledge society and produce women and men whom we can entrust with the future of the country,” he said.

Mr Bagopi indicated that professional development was necessary to maintain competence to practice as well as to keep knowledge and skills up to date in this rapidly changing environment.

He said necessary guidance was needed to make sure that competency was sustained and that there would be continuous development through accredited courses acknowledge and skills throughout the placement of the unemployed graduates.

As professional bodies, he said, the expectation was that the training programmes accredited by professional bodies should ensure that the assessment done at the end of the internship programme is relevant for quality assurance.

In her presentation, National Internship Programme acting director, Ms Caroline Okello- Wengi said the professional bodies are the key drivers of the interns skills development because they employ the graduates.

She said that end of January they had 4091 interns employed by the public sector, NGO’s and parastatals and private companies.

Ms Okello- Wengi said since the inception of the programme, 62 per cent of the interns have gained permanent employment which she said was achieved through concerted efforts from all stakeholders.

She said through the programme, they managed to expand internship with external partners adding that they want to see more Batswana being exposed beyond borders.

The acting director stated that the meeting was aimed at finding ways to strengthen their relationship with professional bodies for the benefit of the interns.

She therefore called on all professional bodies to assist the department in any way and also bring fourth suggestions on how to further produce top quality human resource. ENDS