Unitech, Datec in training alliance

THE Papua New Guinea University of Technology (Unitech) and information technology company Datec (PNG) Ltd have entered into an agreement to form a training alliance that would see the introduction of specialist courses in information technology from next year.
An agreement to effect this unique partnership between industry and academia was signed yesterday in Port Moresby.
Unitech Vice-Chancellor, Dr Misty Baloiloi, and Datec chief executive officer, Bhanu Sud, signed the agreement in the presence of Unitech Chancellor Phillip Stagg, Datec staff and other stakeholders.
Dr Baloiloi said in its quest for excellence in education and to ensure that its students were given the necessary skills to enable them to be relevant in the job market in PNG as well as globally, Unitech would take advantage of the training services provided by Datec, under a three-year preliminary agreement.
“This alliance provides another scope in our efforts to give our students the necessary skills,
especially in ICT, to raise their employability in the workplace both in PNG and abroad,”  Dr Baloiloi said.
He said the initiative would also enable skills building for staff at the university through the help of the Datec Learning Centre, to respond to the demand from industry, particularly the LNG industry, for a highly skilled workforce.
Dr Baloiloi said Unitech looked forward to a very fruitful relationship and assured Datec of a partnership that would be very satisfying into the future.
Datec’s new CEO, Mr Sud, said his company had transformed itself into a highly service-oriented organisation under his leadership in recent times.
He said while it continued to enjoy the status of PNG’s largest ICT solutions and business services company, it had realigned its engagement model to address the needs of the market through higher service levels and customer satisfaction.
Elaborating on the reasons why Datec launched this initiative, Mr Sud said: “We realised that PNG is facing a shortfall of skilled manpower and I mandated our training and education division to ensure that we have the best offering in the market in terms of training services and also to design courses that can run
parallel to college and university curriculum.”
“Our objective is to create a large pool of highly trained professionals to serve the needs of the people of PNG,” he said.