Females urged to take up heavy trade training

By SALLY TIWARI
FEMALE students have been encouraged to apply for the Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVet) skills scholarship programme to study in Australia.
The five-year programme is sponsored by the Papua New Guinea government with the aim of sending Grade 12 school leavers to undergo training in heavy trade skills.
Programme managing consultant George Bopi said 33 females were selected among 190 students.
He said few females applied because they thought it was a male-orientated field.
Project officer Stella Doboi said for the first batch, there were 16 females out of the 58 students selected to study. In the second batch, there were 23 female students.
She said because fewer females had been applying for technical trades, those who applied were given priority if they met the requirements.
She said observations from the first two batches had shown that female students were given priority by employers.
Forty-six of the 190 students travelled to Australia last weekend with the first 22 leaving last Saturday and 24 on Sunday.
The rest of the students  will join them this week.