PV System Students Graduate at VETA

A total of 15 students graduated in July 2006 at the Vocational Education Training Authority (VETA) Mwanza Centre in an electrical technician course based on the PV curriculum developed by the project.

The six month course which started in January 2006 decorated the graduates with a grade 2 electrical technician certificate.

The new technicians are products of introduction of the PV curriculum in the syllabuses of domestic electrical installation department of VETA for quality and sustainable training of solar technicians in the country.

The course was monitored and evaluated in cooperation with VETA head quarters in Dar es Salaam for further replication in other centers. A two-day monitoring visit by a new team from the VETA head quarters, headed by the Training Director, was organized by the Project to VETA Mwanza center.

During the visit the team met with the Center’s Management, the Instructors and held discussions with the Project Implementing Unit and the students.

The objective was to acquaint the new team with the introduced curriculum and give them the chance to evaluate the performance of the Centre in the introduced solar training.

The team highly evaluated the course and promised to consider the possibility of incorporating it in the national VETA’s budget and start a gradual replication in other centers.

The team’s visit was followed by a technical evaluation in July, when the first intake of 15 graduated. A consultant was hired (as an external examiner) to evaluate the PV course introduced in VETA Mwanza Center.

The evaluation covered the training performance versus the introduced curriculum, the staff availability, the adequacy of time allotted for different components, adequacy of training material and the student’s performance in the final examinations.

The consultant submitted his report which is under the consideration by the Authority and the Center’s Management with the objective of gradual replication and introduction of the course in other VETA Centers throughout the country.

The overall objective of the curriculum is to instill knowledge and trade skills on PV technologies and applications to trainees to support wide dissemination of PV technologies in Tanzania.