By Kondwani Magombo, MANA
Minister of Labour, Skills and Innovations, Lillian Patel has expressed satisfaction with innovations such as plastic bricks and boat making, among other things, that Mangochi Community Technical College is coming up with.
Patel toured the college on Monday to familiarise herself with vocational skills that are taught there before proceeding to Balaka on the same mission.
She said President Peter Mutharika deliberately coined the Ministry as Labour, Skills and Innovations to challenge the community colleges to come up with innovations such as the ones Mangochi Technical College had come up with.
“I am impressed with the two innovations of bricks made from plastics and boat making; when you look at the environmental challenges that we are facing due to plastics, this is a very ideal innovation that will clear away all the plastics and leave our environment and the lake clean,” said Patel.
On boat making, Patel said being a lakeshore district and tourism destination, the boats would boost both the tourism industry and fishing, thereby contributing to the economic development at household and national level.
She hailed the concept of community colleges, saying with the youth accounting for the largest percentage of the country’s population, empowering them with vocational skills would be the best way of empowering them to contribute meaningfully to economic development of the country.
Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training Authority (TEVETA) Board Chairperson, Gilbert Chilinde described the innovations at Mangochi Community Technical College as an example of how TEVETA designed various innovations basing on availability of resources in a particular area.
Chilinde described the boat making curriculum as ideal for Mangochi and Ngala (in Karonga) community technical colleges given the two colleges’ proximity to the lake while at Kasama in Chitipa, the youth would be venturing into bee-keeping as the college is surrounded by natural forest.
“In Karonga, we have plenty of rice husks which the youth are using to make briquettes for use as a source of energy for cooking,” said Chilinde.
“In Chikwawa, we are also designing a curriculum for Ngabu Community Technical College which is yet to be opened.
“We want to venture into leather manufacturing since there are a lot of animals there such as cattle,” he added.
Apart from the plastic bricks and boat making innovations, Mangochi Community Technical College is also capable of making rope pumps that are easily operated by hand for irrigation.
Principal for Mangochi Community Technical College, Ronald Mbasa Mwawembe hailed government for according instructors an opportunity to go for upgrading at the Polytechnic.
Mangochi Community Technical College opened in March, 2017 and has eight occupational courses among them carpentry and joinery, welding and fabrication, motor vehicle mechanics, electrical installation, brick laying, designing and tailoring.
