By Meleasie Goviro – EM TV News, Port Moresby
The government invests roughly K110,000 each year per Technical Vocational Education and Training student, shortlisted to study in Australia under the TVET Skills Scholarship Program according to the Department of Higher Education, Reserach, Science and Technology Acting Secretary, David Kavanamur.
This year’s batch of TVETSS Program Certificate 3 graduates in Automotive Mechanical Technology could not have proven more that they were worth the investment.
Mark McCarthey, Regional Manager of TAFE Queensland International described their graduation as unique and historic.
Where other Australian students took three years to complete Automotive Mechanical Technology (12 competencies/year) with only about 75% on average passing; PNG TVETSS Program students completed 36 competencies in eight months and all passed; quite an extraordinary achievement for Papua New Guinea
They have indeed set a new benchmark for upcoming TVET students in Papua New Guinea and Australia.
According to their automotive teacher, Ken McWha, theirs was not an easy journey.
They had their disagreements; they faced many challenges, but managed to come out on top and with flying colours.
Mr Kavanamur challenge the TVET institutions in PNG especially, to give more focus to the identifying skills that need to be developed in cooperation with the industries, the Ministry of Labour and Industrial Relations and Research institutions to optimize quality student output.
Graduates described their learning experience in Queensland TAFE International as nothing compared to what they would have gotten if they were trained locally.
Dibana Dibana, one of today’s graduates said the facilities and advanced learning resource material allowed them increase their understanding in their respective course.
They said having completed these courses in TAFE Queensland they feel they were well learned, competent and were ready for the workforce.
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