2016-07-20Staff Report 2 Walvis Bay Namport’s port engineer, Elzevir Gelderbloem, has appealed to schools and stakeholders in the maritime and logistics sector to expose learners at an earlier age to career opportunities in those sectors. Gelderbloem says this will allow Namibia to address skills shortages in these sectors that are critical to the country’s economic growth. He was speaking at the official opening of the annual schools exhibition by Namport recently. The four-day exhibition is held by Namport to expose secondary school learners to port activities and support services, so that they can identify career opportunities at an earlier stage. About ten schools from Swakopmund and Walvis Bay participated in the exhibition, in which they were tasked to research Namport businesses activities and support services and to present their findings during the exhibition. According to Gelderbloem, exposing children at an early stage to such activities will enable them to make better subject choices, seeing that they would have an idea of what career path they want to follow. “Sometimes they choose the wrong subjects and realise it too late. However, if we expose them already in their early secondary school careers, we will be able to groom them in the right direction,” he said, adding that by exposing learners at secondary school level to the various career choices in the maritime sector, will also allow the country to address the shortage of skills in key sectors in the near future. “The maritime and logistic sector is one of the critical sectors that contributes to the economic development of the country, which requires the right skills to maintain its contribution to the country. Therefore, we should expose our children to such activities as early as possible to positively stimulate them in terms of career choice,” said Gelderbloem. Adelheid Kandjala, the special advisor to the governor of Erongo, appealed to the learners to make use of the opportunity granted by Namport to them, as they are lucky and privileged to have stakeholders, such as Namport, that are keen on creating opportunities for the youth. “Be serious, feel proud of your own country and make use of the opportunity to positively contribute to our economy. Some learners in other regions do not even know about Namport. So make use of the opportunity given to you,” she advised. 2016-07-20Staff Report 2
