Govt to send 17 TVET students to Namibia

At least 17 vocational education students will next month represent Uganda in the World Skills competitions in the Namibian city of Swakopmund.

This was revealed during the unveiling of winners of this year’s national TVET (Technical Vocational Education and Training) competition at Nakawa Vocational Institute in Kampala on Friday last week. 

The development marks an end to a three-month exercise that saw events organisers comb all four regions of the country for Ugandans with exceptional vocational skills.

The skills areas included painting, fashion and design, nursing, midwifery, medical laboratory, welding and cabinet making.

Others included electrical installation, bricklaying, hotel processing, cookery, automotive technology, hairdressing, plumbing and pharmacy.

Also among the skill areas chosen for the competition were agro processing and agro machinery.

The competition will run from March 28 to April 2, in Namibia. From that event, exceptional performers will be selected to represent Africa in the World Skills series in Shanghai, China later this year.

The winners

In a speech presented for her by the Third Deputy Prime Minister, Rukia Nakadama, the Vice-President, Jessica Alupo, hailed the outstanding innovations at the event, saying they demonstrate remarkable progress in the country’s campaign to make vocational education popular. 

Through the NDP (National Development Program III), she said the Government is focusing on human capital development to enhance the productivity of the country’s labour force to spur economic growth. 

Dr Geoffrey Sepuuya, an official of Tropical Institute of Development Innovations (TRIDI), the consultancy firm which designed the competition, said apart from helping competitors to showcase their competencies, the competition was designed to find solutions to some of the problems that the country faces. 

In agro processing, for example, participants partook in making garlic-spiced tomato sauce, which is intended to help farmers increase the profitability of their crop when there is a glut. 

In agro machinery, Sepuuya said competitors looked at the hand operated maize thresher machine.

“Many farmers grow maize in Uganda, but use their hands during harvest. Because they cannot do it fast, they end up losing great chunks of their crop,” he said, adding that the machine designed by students as part of the competition can shred at least 300kg of maize a day.

Other interesting innovations the competitors came up with included designing a green energy motorcycle in a bid to protect the environment.

Narasi Kambaho, the public relations officer of Uganda Business and Technical Education Board (UBTEB), said the competition is one of the ways to improve creativity among the country’s TVET graduates.

“You must be able to add value where you stay. That’s why as UBTEB, we are emphasising competency based learning,” he said. 

“The skills exhibited in this competition show we are slowly getting to where we want to be in terms of skills,” Kambaho added.

According to the Commissioner of Health Training Institutions at the education ministry, Dr Safina Musene, the competition will help rebrand the sector in a bid to improve perceptions towards TVET.

She thanked stakeholders, in particular, the Belgium government, which has supported Uganda since 2018 and paid all the subscription fees for Uganda to participate in the World Skills Competition.

About the competition

World skills is supported by Belgium’s government cooperation agency, Enabel, with technical support from UNESCO, Ireland and Korean governments.

Although the inaugural competition took place in Uganda in 2018, this year will be the first time that Uganda will send competitors to the international meet.