The German government has agreed to provide grant assistance worth US$400,000 (more than 32 billion kip) under the Public Private Partnership Project (PPPP) focusing on enabling capacity building and teacher technology training for 2016-2017.
The support will specifically assist vocational teachers at the Lao-German Technical College in Vientiane allowing them to upgrade their knowledge and skills using Computer Numerical Control (CNC).
A grant Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreement was signed on Monday at the Lao-German Technical College by Director General of Department for Technical and Vocational Education at the Ministry of Education and Sports, Mr. Nouphanh Outsa, and Country Director of Deutsche Gesellschaft for Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Mr. Ernst Hustaedt, on behalf of the German Government, in the presence of College Director Mr. Somlith Virivong and representatives from Mathematics Technical Software Development GmbH (MTS).
Mr. Somlith said the MoU corresponded to national policy and strategies on education reform, particularly the Vocational Education Development Strategy.
The first training is taking place from 1 to 26 August. There will be a follow-up training on CNC technology carried out from 6 February to 3 March 2017.
It is expected the trained teachers will be able to further transfer knowledge and skills to students in this work.
He said the main objective of this partnership was to bring the modern CNC technology, which is in high demand in both local and regional labour markets, into Lao vocational education. It also contributed to developing a qualified and skilled local labour force and improving Lao AEC competitiveness.
The project provides for long-term cooperation in vocational training and economic development between the Lao-German Technical College in Vientiane and GIZ and others partners, he added.
This partnership is the continuation of successful Lao-German development cooperation which has provided various equipment and machinery to the technical college; however, due to limited knowledge and experience, this has not been fully used to its capacity.
Mr. Ernst Hustaedt said the Lao-German Technical College was a leading vocational institute in Laos and had strong links with industry. There was a willingness to increase its partnerships in order to support high quality vocational education and training.
Under the agreement between the GIZ and MTS, both parties agreed to long-term cooperation for the development of human resources and improved teaching and learning at the technical school.
Source: Vientiane Times
