Hello followers! I
still can’t believe how the last month has flown by and I sit here with a short week and a half left.
This week so far has been visiting companies and beginning to
round up those which will serve on the Advisory Committee which I mentioned a
couple of posts ago but here is a quick rundown: The establishment of the Advisory Committee
was among the action points in the June 2013 steering committee meeting. This
resolution was reached as part of increasing VETA students/teachers
exposure/industry links to various companies related to the EEVT project. Also,
the advisory committee was expected to provide necessary advice on the specific
skills/requirements in the gas relating industries for improving VETA’s
curriculum and workshops so that what is produced at VETA (graduates) matches the specific
qualifications within industries. Much of the details on the roles of the
committee were expected to be shared during official launch of the advisory
committee. The Advisory Committee will be divided in sub-groups related to the
specific trades that will meet at a regular basis to give their inputs in the
curriculum.
We again visited the companies from my previous post, the local
builder and the port, but this time we were able to take the VETA teachers as
well as a handful of trainees with us to the sites. At the local building site, one of the Foreman
took all of us around on a tour and explained in detail what the steps were in
the process of building the apartments, the trainees and teachers were showed
some health and safety procedures and able to climb up and around the site. They seemed to really enjoy, and were
extremely interested and eager to learn. In fact as we were leaving, they were
asking if they could come back a full day and at different stages of the
building to learn more which we are working to arrange during the upcoming
holiday. The hope is that the teaching
and materials in the Carpentry workshop can be modified some to better fit the
industry. There is only so much that can
be taught in a workshop but I think that showing them what they could be doing
in the future is a very important motivational factor for these young
Tanzanians. The Builder agreed to be
part of the advisory committee and it seems like this “client” relationship is
going in the right direction.
This past Monday the electrical and plumbing supervisors
from the port had visited the VETA workshops to get an idea of what was here
before showing the trainees and teachers around. So we also did a tour here yesterday which
was concentrated on those two trades.
The teachers and trainees also seemed very engaged and interested at
this site. They were showed things such
as the water filtration system as well as a new building with cabling/sockets
newly installed actually by the VETA interns who we met the last visit. Some great suggestions came out of these
visits. For example with plumbing, the idea
of making cubicles with mock filtration systems and potentially showers and
toilets at the VETA workshop (as opposed to only pipe fitting) that would help
with more “real world” training. From
now the suggestion will be brought up to VETA and hopefully funding can be
obtained to make some of these changes.
For the next few days the plan is to visit several companies
in person to see if some solid appointments can be made for the future which I may or may not be able to take part in depending on the timing.
The Advisory committee once re-engaged will meet next Tuesday before I
go, and I do plan to attend and see how it goes. The strategy I wrote out is still in draft
mode and may stay that way but I do plan to go over everything next week with
the Country Director and Industry Link manager.
As for the other project in Lindi I started helping out there, but
probably won’t get too far into it while still in Tanzania.
I know that as volunteers choosing to spend time in other countries
are truly always hoping to “leave their mark” somehow, whether you are there 1 week or
10 years… I hope that my expertise and
knowledge transfer has been positive for this project, have already let everyone know they can reach me via email anytime, and really wish to stay in contact and see what develops here. I absolutely hope to leave a mark but if for some reason that doesn't happen, at least this experience has certainly left a mark on me, in a great way!
Some pics of the site visits- explaining the water filtration system and importance of fire hose.
Supervisor and students/teachers at construction site.
