. Shamenda

By JAMES KUNDA? –
LABOUR and Social Security Minister Fackson Shamenda says the focus of the Government is to increase access to skills training for the youth to ensure that they actively participate in economic development.
Mr Shamenda said Government, however, believed that this could only be achieved through a systematic expertise transfer in entrepreneurship and vocational skills training.
The minister said this last Friday during a fundraising dinner for the Northern Technical College (NORTEC) held at Mukuba Hotel in Ndola.?“It is in this line that the Patriotic Front Government has continued to strengthen the technical training and vocational education sector.
“We have invested greatly in ensuring enhancement of youth empowerment in the various technical institutions through various projects such as expansion of existing technical training institutions, building new facilities and helping to improve the quality of technical education through provision of training materials,” Mr Shamenda said.
He said the Government would continue to play its role in the transformation and upgrading of all technical and vocational training institutions.?“Strong economic and traditional values are what underlay the country’s success and through institutions such as NORTEC, we look forward to sharing these values with the people of Zambia,” he said.
At the same occasion, NORTEC principal Victor Mulenga said the dinner was held to raise funds for projects that the college needed to implement to better the learning surrounding for students as it commemorated 50 years of existence recently.
“NORTEC has been in the industry for 50 years now but infrastructure has run down due to the increase in student population. It is in this vein that the college requires to expand its library, erect a wall fence around the institution and improve on the internal road infrastructure,” he said.
Mr Mulenga said the library expansion project required K2, 400, 650, while erecting the wall fence would gobble K779, 376 and K1,205,000 would be required for the road works.
NORTEC was officially opened on September 19, 1964 to offer training in technical and vocational skills which are available up to Diploma level.