SPTC seeks to address issues affecting trainees’ performance |11 August 2014

Trainee technicians enrolled by the Seychelles Public Transport Corporation (SPTC) and their parents have met key officials of the corporation and its partners in a consultative session.

The aim is to further build on, improve and strengthen the quality and level of training being provided, get a better insight into the trainees’ expectations and address issues affecting their performance.

Recommendations from the forum which took place at the Maison Football will allow the SPTC and its partners to further strengthen the training programmes the corporation offers.

Issues discussed include work ethics, attitude and discipline.

Currently the SPTC is enrolling 24 trainee technicians under the Apprenticeship and Technical, Vocational, Education and Training (TVET) programmes in partnership with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Employment. It is to be noted that this is the largest number of trainees SPTC has accommodated in a year.

Addressing everyone present for the discussion last week the chief executive of the SPTC, Geffy Zialor, congratulated the trainees for their good performances but stressed that there are issues that keep coming up and need to be discussed openly with all parties concerned and seek ways to deal with them promptly if the SPTC and its partners want the programmes to continue to be a success and produce well trained technicians to take up positions in the corporation or elsewhere in the future.

The fact that attitude, discipline and lateness continue to be a problem among some of the trainees Mr Zialor called on the parents to support their children and ensure they become more responsible and change their attitude toward employment.

“Parents need to help the SPTC to help their children,” Mr Zialor said.

For her part Sheila Pool, the coordinator of the TVET programme in the Min

istry of Education, reminded the trainees that the programme is yet another opportunity for them to succeed in their lives and they should not miss it.

The number of trainees under the TVET programme this year include two who are based at the Praslin Transport Company (PTC) and two others based at the SPTC workshop on Mahé while the 19 others are being equipped  with necessary skills  under the Aprenticeship programme in the SPTC’s New Port-based workshop.
The students are enrolled as trainee mechanics, panel beater or airconditioning technicians.

After completing the two-year programme at SPTC, most of the trainees are absorbed by the corporation, unless they choose not to stay.

From 2011 to 2013, the SPTC has enrolled 47 trainees.

Four young adults who went through the Apprenticeship programme are now occupying supervisory positions in the SPTC workshop on Mahé.