Tanzania: VETA Mtwara Trains Future Oil Experts

Lindi — FOLLOWING huge discoveries of on-shore and off-shore natural gas reserves in Mtwara and Lindi regions, the Vocational Education and Training Authority (VETA) in South East Zone is offering courses that would enable its graduates to win
employment opportunities in various projects.

In view of this, the authority's desired intention is to ensure that the country has adequate competent personnel who will sufficiently exploit the resources instead of depending on foreign experts.

Briefing reporters, the Regional Director for South East Zone, Mr Wilhard Soko, said that the authority has ensured that its courses are compatible with international standards.

He pointed out that the natural gas that is to be transported through pipelines to Dar es Salaam and other major factories including Dangote Cement Factory, which is in the construction stage, require both skilled and semi-skilled labour, thus it was VETA's determination to ensure that it produces market ready graduates.

He said that VETA has been playing a great role in ensuring that it produces experts to meet the labour demands for various investors. "There will be a number of projects where qualified and competent staff will be required.

Our authority is now working hard to ensure that the country does not opt for foreign experts," he noted. He noted that the population in Mtwara and other regions stand to benefit in terms of increased employability and jobs and therefore raise household income.

This being the case, VETA in the zone has to make sure that it makes proper use of the opportunity.

Mr Soko also downplayed the widespread misplaced mindsets purporting that VETA was largely meant for school dropouts, saying it was high time the attitude was abandoned.

He observed that there is a number of countries whose economies were largely contributed by vocational trainings, citing German as one of the best examples.

For instance, he said that the recent agreement entered between the illustrious international gas company--British Gas Tanzania and VETA clearly indicated that what the authority offers to its students is unquestionable.

"VETA Mtwara thus becomes a centre of excellence for providing vocational training in disciplines relevant to the oil and gas industry and other related services.

This is the thing that the public has to be clear about," he noted. He observed that even in the labour market, VETA graduates have been delivering well and what also makes them unique is that they are able to employ themselves due to the nature of the training they acquire