700 graduate from training institute with life skills

THE Mapex Training Institute’s Goroka campus in Eastern Highlands held its first graduation on Wednesday, graduating 700 students in the fields of plant equipment, motor vehicle operation and business studies.
The graduation was held at the Goroka Sunrise Four Square church with students from Southern Highlands, under the sponsorship of Governor William Powi, constituting the largest number of graduates with 200.
Southern Highlands technical vocational education technical (Tvet) consultant Don Waniel, who delivered the keynote address, said Powi had set aside K20 million for Tvet programmes this year.
He said Mapex Training Institute was the leading trading partner to impart skills training for their students. “Under the Tvet programme, Southern Highlands students will have three years of training with Mapex Training Institute,” he said.
“Tvet is the master key that unlocks educational, social and economic development of this country.
“It gives a second chance to drop outs or those with little formal education to pursue their dreams.”
Waniel said Powi’s commitment would continue with a second batch of students expected to arrive in Goroka next week.
Mapex Training Institute representative Bafike Kongrui said the institute came to identify and design courses according to the needs identified of communities and businesses.
He said the Government needed to devise policies for life skills to be captured through Tvet in PNG.
Marcus Palem Kara from Mapex Training Institute said in his speech that the primary focus of the institute was to provide alternative education for students who had been pushed out of the formal education system.
He said since the establishment of the Institute in 2015 universal basic education has been imparted to students under Tvet sector.