The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga, has pledged to ask government to provide old and broken down vehicles to vocational schools for practical training.
The Speaker made this pledge while presiding over the ground-breaking ceremony for a motor vehicle mechanical garage for St. Joseph’s Vocational Training Centre in Kamuli, Wednesday 29th June 2016.
Kadaga said she had written to the ministry of health about the many vehicles lying at their yard with the view of having them disposed of or sent to technical institutions to be used for training of students.
“I will contact the minister again over those vehicles. It is important that the students have practical skills imparted on them and I am sure these old cars can be vital in this training,” she said.
The Speaker, who is also the Kamuli Woman MP, added that she will also contact the police with the possibility of securing the cars that are written off following road accidents.
“I will initiate talks with the Inspector General of Police about the many written off vehicles at the Inspectorate of Vehicles at Naguru. These can come in handy for the students training,” she added.
Kadaga also urged girls to take interest in training in technical areas like motor vehicle mechanics, driving and agricultural training so as to be competitive with the boys.
“Why don’t we have more girls training in these areas? I see some progress but this is not enough. We need more girls competing with boys in these areas,” she said.
The Director of the vocational training centre, Fr. Lazar Arasu, said they hope to have the centre as the best motor vehicle mechanical institute in Uganda..
“Apart from training, we hope to be the best garage in the locality as seen from the market potential of over 600 vehicles in Kamuli,” he said.
The President Human Help Network, Ewald Dietrich, said that the youth in Kamuli and Uganda as a whole have the potential to benefit from the centre and enhance their skills.
“You have an excellent chance to fight for your welfare and better your lives,” he said.
Dietrich said there would be a German car engineer based at the Centre in Kamuli to impart skills to the students.
The mechanical institute and garage will be built and run in partnership with the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, Don Bosco Mondo-Germany and the Human Help Network.
There are currently 120 students in the motor vehicle mechanical department doing certificate courses and skills training. 25 of these are girls.