Eight females from the Ahi LLG in Lae were among sixty people that graduated today with certificates in heavy plant and equipment operation at Lae’s Commercial Training College.
The eight women completed a four week training in mobile cranes, forklifts, excavators and other heavy plant operations.
These women are part of the first batch of people to have graduated under a program initiated by the Ahi LLG and funded by the Lae district JDP and BPC.
Veronica Kiap from Jiwaka in the Highlands region is among three other women who have graduated with a certificate as mobile crane operators.
She also called on other women to also take up such opportunities and should not see them as men’s job.
Credit has also been given to the trainers who have been helpful in encouraging them to be confident in what they do.
Working among a male dominated workforce seems not to be a problem for these women.
Jeaner Manui was an office secretary, but now she will be an excavator operator, a job that no one from her family has ever taken up.
With Lae undergoing major project developMen’s, employment opportunities are also expected to increase.
This will also alleviate the high number of unemployed people in the Ahi LLG and Lae city.
