Ela offers trade skills

 ELA Academy is giving opportunities to young individuals to learn trade skills under their apprenticeship programme apprentice development coordinator Joe Kavatpuo says.

Kavatpuo said their programme was in conjunction with the National Apprentice and Trade Testing Board (NATTB) Act and regulations and is for four years. 

“Our programme goes in line with NATTB’s guidelines. Once apprentices come under our programme, they have to sign a contract with NATTB so after their probation period, they sign another contract which recognises them as apprentices attached with Ela Motors,” Kavatpuo said. 

Ela Academy’s Apprentice Master, Dale Kuson said the apprentices were picked from the 16 dealerships around the country and spent their first year at the academy in Port Moresby and then go out for their practical where they were recruited.   

He said while out in the workplace, they are only called in for extension courses or product courses until their four-year term is up. 

Kavatpuo said some remain to be team leaders, managers and supervisors.

“It all depends on things like attitude and behaviour. Once we give the certificates to them upon the completion of the programme then the company management decides whom to retain and whom to release,” he said.

Kavatpuo said Toyota looks at building from within as it is the world’s leading car manufacturing company so we have to maintain the standards. 

“We try to have everything instilled in them in the first stage of their training,” he said.

“So basically you can see they’ll be here doing this holistic approach by making them thinkers, visionaries, competent, innovative, confident and good researchers just the way every institution does to their students in their first year.” 

 Kavatpuo said one of the challenges that were faced was making sure that there was coordination. 

“We send out evaluation forms and evaluate them on a monthly basis. Their evaluation forms are sent out to the dealership managers or salesman to fill and send back. I visit the sites to check on the apprentices in their second, third and final years, however first years are evaluated here,” he said.

Kuson said the stress was placed on simple rules such as following instructions.

Kavatpuo said there were NATTB extension courses that gave the opportunities for apprentices to get their tradesman-ship. 

“We have in-house training for Toyota products and also NATTB extension courses which apprentices all across the country must attend in order to be qualified to get their tradesmen certificate,” he said.

“Our centre is qualified to conduct NATTB courses while other companies send their apprentices to other institutions such as the Port Moresby Technical College or Mt Hagen Technical College to attend extension course because they don’t have facilities.”

Kuson said the number of intakes to be recruited depended on the demand of the specific trade.