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Archive - Archive 2004 - July 2013

Training a priority for Met officers – minister |07 May 2012

Training a priority for Met officers – minister

Dr Payet interacting with staff during his visit at the Met office

Minister Rolph Payet was speaking to Seychelles Nation at the end of a visit on Friday afternoon to the National Meteorological office based at the Seychelles international airport.

The minister – who at one time headed the Met office – said he was familiarising himself with the changes and progress of the office and how his ministry could best help the institution move forward.

Dr Payet was first briefed by the met officers about all they have achieved, especially in terms of new equipment and new and better ways of working and also investments needed.

Then he was taken on a tour of the facilities, where he saw the public weather service and the studio, climate centre, operation for aviation weather service, early warning centre, and also the observatory.

Dr Payet said he was happy with the progress made by the office but that it needed a new building, among other investments.

“We need to focus on training for our met officers, so that they continuously upgrade their skills and stay abreast of developments in this sector,” he said.

“I would also encourage other people to join this service and we have a newly launched degree course for Environmental Science at the University of Seychelles which has modules in atmospheric science, oceanography and other smaller modules.”

He added that the met officers have also been tasked with reaching out to young people and showing them the benefits and appeal of taking up a career in meteorology.

“We are also working to continuously meet international norms and are documenting our norms as a formal way of showing that,” he said.

“We need to also upgrade the equipment here – especially since there is an early warning system here – which will be very beneficial to the community. The arrival of the fibre optic cable will make work a lot easier here while taking it to a new level of sophistication, so we need to have proper facilities in the near future to cater for that too.”

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