By Clemence Tashaya
EENHANA – At least 119 trainees at Development Aid from People to People (DAPP) Vocational Training Centre (VTC) graduated after completing courses in Business and Secretarial Studies, Bricklaying and Plastering and Community Development last week.
The graduation ceremony was attended by the Omusati Governor, Sophia Shaningwa, families of trainees and senior officials from DAPP. Addressing the gathering last week, the Omusati Governor, Sophia Shaningwa, hailed the DAPP VTC for coming up with relevant courses for the Namibian youths that would not only benefit the Omusati region but the country as a whole. “Already, some of the DAPP trainees have been absorbed by various industries, and most of them are female graduates. I am informed that female graduates have outnumbered their male counterparts by 78 percent to 12 percent. This is very encouraging and it is clear that we are making good progress in empowering young women with skills and competencies to allow them to enter the male dominated world of work,” she said
The centre offers courses in three trades, Business and Secretarial Studies, Bricklaying and Plastering and Community Development.The Principal of the centre, Manuel Chimunda, says he is happy to note the pass rate for 2013 was 95 percent and that some of the graduates are already working with different organisations throughout the country. “Apart from being a vocational training centre, our trainees are taking part in operating the school together with their teachers. They are also involved in outreach activities such as building toilets for the community. They have renovated David Sheehema Senior Secondary School in the region while they have also planted more than 1 000 trees in the community,” the Principal says.
Chimunda adds that the centre has started a new course of training Pre-School teachers with an intake of 20 students. The centre has now a total of 169 students, an increase of 13 percent.
“DAPP has an organisational staff development plans for its employees. In this respect, the centre has been sending instructors to the Frontline Institute in Zimbabwe to further their studies. Every year, there are opportunities for the teaching staff or students to go to the Frontline Institute in Zimbabwe for two years to study Project Management with a possibility of coming back and work with DAPP Namibia,” he says.
Established in 1996, the DAPP Vocational Training Centre has made significant contributions to the socio-economic development of the country, in respect of human resources development, capacity development and training. It is a training provider which is known to deliver accessible, equitable and quality vocational education and training. It is also administering the Nakayale Vocational Training Centre on behalf of the Namibia Training Authority (NTA) in the Omusati region.