Tech students learn more about starting own business

A TECHNICAL college in Port Moresby has held a business workshop to help students understand the formal processes involved in starting a business.
Australia-Pacific Technical College (APTC) workshop facilitator Samson Moke said the workshop followed a six-month programme they undertook.
Moke said it complemented skills taught to students who were experienced trades people. The workshop provided them with information on how to start formal businesses using their trade.
The workshop included presentations from Investment Promotion Authority (IPA), Internal Revenue Commission (IRC), Nasfund and Kina Bank.
Moke said the Australia aid-funded programme enrolled experienced trades people to upgrade their knowledge to Australian standards.
Students for the programme are from PNG and the Pacific.
Moke said students undergo up-skilling in carpentry, electrical, welding and fabrication, commercial cookery and hospitality.
A student of the APTC programme Ruth Soken, a teacher at the Limana Vocational Centre, studied hospitality at the college.
Soken said the programme was beneficial to her as she learnt important communication skills in regard to how employees in the hospitality industry communicated with customers.
She said the basic computing skill she learnt enabled her to use email and internet search engines.
“I will be a changed person when I go back to work. I will seek to pass on this knowledge to those in my workplace,” she said.