Parents urged to put children in technical training schools

TECHNICAL vocational education training (Tvet) is the way forward for the country’s advancement in terms of developing a skilled workforce, Highlands Tvet coordinator Paul Gunn says.
He made the remarks during the St Joseph’s Feast Day celebrations at St Mary’s Technical School at Mingende, Chimbu, last Friday.
Gunn said the sad scenario in Papua New Guinea was that most people, especially parents, did not realise the importance of a Tvet education.
“The focus of our people is on formal education only,” he said.
“Once kids drop out of the formal education system, parents think that’s the end to everything and refuse to send their kids to get an education in the Tvet sector,” he said.
“Tvet education has been elevated to the next level and it’s no longer the vocational school that you know about.”
He said recently most Tvet schools had been introduced with national certificate (NC) courses and some had been selected to do trade testing (TT) of which St Mary’s Technical School had been selected to do the testing this year.
“Students who attend this school will effectively do NC 1 and 2 here and then proceed to doing NC 3 at established technical colleges.
“After successfully completing that, they can pursue their education at higher institutions like the polytechnic schools in Lae to do their final NC 4 and NC 5 to be certified diploma holders,” Gunn said.
“That will guarantee them secure employment in the technical workforce throughout the country and elsewhere.”
“We’ve developed pathways for the Tvet sector and that should pave way to complement the government’s “take back PNG” concept.
“We’re therefore, encouraging more students who drop out of the formal education system to start embracing Tvet education as a way forward to advance in life,” Gunn said.
Highlands Tvet inspector Paul Moivo, who shared the same sentiments, said that by 2050 PNG would have a vibrant and technically skilled workforce.
Moivo said in 20 to 30 years the country would be able to export its technical expertise overseas.
“We often complain about foreign companies bringing in their own technical people to engage in multi-million projects contracts,” Moivo said.
“This could be a genuine call but the failure on our part is we don’t produce adequate and diversified skilled manpower to get employed,” he said.