Upskilled vocational teachers return

Twelve teachers in Automotive training from several local vocational training colleges have just returned after a six-week stint where they completed a course in Automotive training at a leading German technical training institution. The group is unanimous that they are very eager to impart their new skills to their students at the VTCs.
The teachers, hailing from the National Youth Service; Namcol and the Okakarara, Rundu and Windhoek vocational training centres successfully completed a six-week training course at the renowned Lucas Nuelle Academy in Kerpen, Germany. Mervis Muhuure, who spoke on behalf of his fellow automotive trainers noted their commitment to plough back the skills, knowledge and experience they have gained during the course.
All twelve teachers have successfully completed the course.
Noting that a quality trainer yields good graduates, Muhuure said they are now responsible to ensure they apply their skills and knowledge to improve and upgrade local automotive training, to improve the training curricula and to be effective mentors to other automotive training teachers.
“We also got to know each other as instructors in the local training sector better, and I am confident that going forward, this group will become key players in driving the local automotive sector to greater heights,” Muhuure said at the welcoming luncheon hosted this week by the Namibia Training Authority.
The training course served as part of a comprehensive response by the training authority to the national development objectives as outlined in the Educational and the Training Sector Improvement Programme (ETSIP). The NTA response focuses on technical and pedagogical upskilling, trainer industry exposure and the upgrading of trainer qualifications.
The training authority’s acting Chief Operations Officer, Richwell Lukonga said the first part of the training programme incorporated an intense study of electrics and electronics tailor-made for automotive, while the second part focused on diagnostics to enable students to find and identify faults on vehicles.
The trainers sat for both written and practical examinations, which included developing a diagnostic strategy after consulting a customer and inspecting a real electronic fault on a vehicle, Lukonga said, adding that the group also visited major automotive plants while in Germany.
“The NTA and our training institutions and industry partners, wish to congratulate the trainers on their proud achievement. We are confident that the skills, knowledge and experience they have gained through this training programme will go a long way in contributing to a more effective and localised automotive training regime, especially as far as them sharing their new-found knowledge and expertise in the development of new training curricula and assessment instruments and the mentoring of our automotive trainees are concerned,” Lukonga said.