by Benny Geteng – EM TV, Port Moresby
The small and medium enterprise (SME) sector is the biggest employer in the country thus more people should be appropriately trained to embrace the sector.
This was the message of Acting Managing Director for Small Business Development Corporation, Henry Marasembi, to more than 30 school students from De La Sallle Secondary School in Port Moresby today.
Mr Marasembi said that the KAB program that was launched in 2005 and incorporated into schools is now bearing fruit, having DeLaSalle Secondary a pilot school in NCD to have its students graduate.
Mr Marasembi said that Papua New Guinea is facing a school-leaver time bomb with nearly 50,000 children having access to basic formal education, only a fraction of them make it into tertiary institutions.
Business Teacher and Course Facilitator of the program, Wapson Lara, said that the 30 grade 10 students that graduated from SBDC’s ‘Know A Business Program’ were presented certificates that can now enable them to be recognised to borrow loans from commercial banks to venture into SMEs.
Principal Ume said that the school will venture into projects such as poultry and inland fishing for the students to put into practice the business skills they have learnt later in life.
The program by SBDC ha so far trained more than 200 teachers in schools across the country and over 30,000 students since its exception.
