19 Kwakwani apprentices benefit from BIT training

Some 19 persons from Kwakwani, Sub-district Two, Region Ten are benefiting from training in electrical installation spearheaded by the Ministry of Labour’s Board of Industrial Training (BIT).

At a meeting held at the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) Labour Minister, Joseph Hamilton MP, said the programmes are provided for everyone.  

“I want more women to participate. It is too long the society and most men, defined what type of job women must have, that has to change. The programmes we do, they are not gender specific; any person can join any programme.”

Eighteen men and one woman are participating in the four-month course, which the Ministry is hosting in collaboration with the Kwakwani Utilities Incorporated (KUI). The electrical company is providing the practical aspects of the training, while the ministerial agency provides technical support, accredited certificates and training kits.

Chief Executive Officer/Secretary of the Board, Mr. Richard Maughn expressed gratitude to the KUI for supporting the training.  

“We are looking forward for a long-lasting collaboration, where we can bring other skillset and offer other training to the residents of Kwakwani,” he said.

In an invited comment, General Manager of the KUI, Mr. David Adams said he hopes to provide more opportunities for the youth through training.

“At present we are doing the electrical installation; however, in the future, KUI plans to take this programme further as we want to expand. We have a power plant; we have a water plant and we have general maintenance and as such electrical and mechanical engineering is vast and we find that in this country today we don’t have power engineers.

I would like to see young people engaged in power generation. We have more power generation engineers; we are now going to move to diverse electrification in this country very soon.”

Several of the apprentices told DPI that they were grateful for the training.

Ms. Tenecia Dequoy said the programme is exciting.

“It is great, being the only female is kind of weird but it is a great pleasure, excitement in learning new things. I intend to work along with someone to gain more experience and then after about two to three years in experience then venture off on my own.”

Another apprentice, Mr. Travis Kellman shared similar sentiments.

“I feel like this is something exciting to do. Well from finishing this programme and getting the certificate, I can be able to continue going to study more about it to technician level, get my certificate in being a certifying officer and working along with someone else who have more experience could teach me more.

After then gaining those amounts of experience after the years, I could able to start my own business, be my own entrepreneur in electrician engineering and so forth,” he said. The Board of Industrial Training offers several other programmes from which residents could benefit. These include cosmetology and block making. Training in heavy-duty equipment operation is expected to commence soon.