Institute celebrates graduation, anniversary

MORE than 200 students from the International Training Institute’s Lae campus received their certificates and diplomas last Friday during the school’s 36th graduation.
The graduation for its January intake coincided with the institute’s 20th anniversary, celebrated with the theme “Creating career pathways for human resource through academic excellence”.
PNG University of Technology acting deputy vice-chancellor Dr Gabriel Arpa said the country needed to develop its human resource and thanked ITI for doing its part.
“PNG needs to develop its human resource which is the intellectual capacity of the people; to convert raw products into usable products,” Arpa said.
“It is the human factor that can make a significant difference to any organisation or company, because it’s not the technology that is running the operation, it is the human being that is placed to use the technology to produce the result.”
He urged the institution to maintain partnerships with its affiliates and challenged the graduating students to strive to further their learning.
ITI’s Lae campus was the first school to be established outside Port Moresby and is the largest of the 11 outside Port Moresby.
The institute started with only 30 students 20 years ago and today, it has more than 4,000 students studying at its campuses.
ITI managing director Kumaran Sentheyval said quality education was important, as was the need to help students who had missed out the major state and church-run tertiary institutions.
The institute is affiliated to four Australian universities – the University of Southern Queensland, James Cook University, Griffith University and University of Sunshine Coast.