VETA signs provisional intercollegiate agreement with Chinese college

The Vocational Education and Training Authority (VETA) has signed a provisional collaboration agreement with Henan Vocational College of Agriculture of China to establish friendly intercollegiate relationship geared towards enhancing training through exchange of students, teachers and other academic activities.

The agreement was reached and signed today (20^th December 2018) at VETA Head office between Vice President of Henan Vocational College of Agriculture, Professor Dou Ruimu on one side and the Director General of VETA, Dr. Pancras Bujulu on the other and will be followed by signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at a later stage.

The signing of the agreement was witnessed by the Director of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), Dr. Noel Mbonde and the Board Chairman of the Vocational Education and Training (VET Board), delegates from Henan College and VETA Management team members.

VETA has an interest in enhancing skills development for the agricultural sector and aims at strengthening its VETA Kihonda to become a centre of excellence for agro vocational training programmes in the country. Therefore, the Authority would like to borrow a leaf from Henan Vocational College of Agriculture, which has more than sixty years’ experience of training provision in the particular field. 

Prior to signing of the agreement, delegation comprising of six high profile officials from the Henan Vocational College of Agriculture spent two days of visits at VETA and discussion with VETA officials on the possible areas of collaboration.   

After visit and discussion with VETA Management at Head Office on 18 December 2018, the delegation visited VETA Eastern zone and VETA Kihonda centre where they learnt about the training programmes on agro-mechanics conducted at the centre. 

Speaking before signing of the agreement, the VET Board Chairman, Peter Maduki said that his Board fully support the collaboration because of its potential contribution to enhancing skills training in agriculture, which is a key economic sector of the country.

“More than 70% of the Tanzanian population depends on agriculture, therefore improving training in agriculture means improving lives of Tanzanians,” he said.

He added that with the current drive of the country towards becoming an industrial led economy, improving skills in agriculture also means assurance of sufficient supply of raw materials for the industries as most of the industries in developing countries like Tanzania depend on raw materials from agricultural produce.

Also, the Director of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), Dr. Noel Mbonde promised to support and facilitate fast-tracking of the collaboration because of its potential importance in enhancing training provision.

The current vocational training in Tanzania as provided and regulated by VETA include Agro-mechanics, Meat Processing Technology, Seed Oil Processing, Horticulture and Field Crop Production, Forestry Attendant,  Baking Technology, Mushroom Production, Wine making, Vegetable and Fruit Processing, Fish Processing and Honey Processing.

VETA owned centres provide long courses of two to three years in Agro-mechanics (VETA Kihonda, VETA Manyara, VETA Arusha-Oljoro, VETA Mpanda and VETA Dakawa); Animal husbandry (VETA Singida); Meat Processing Technology (VETA Dodoma). Also, different short courses of two months to six are provided, mostly to the informal sector operators through the Integrated Training for Entrepreneurship Promotion programme (INTEP). They include Mushroom Production, Wine making, Vegetable and Fruit Processing, Fish Processing, and Honey Processing.   

The Chinse government owned Henan Vocational College of Agriculture was established in 1952 and is located in Henan Province.  It is a key vocational college in China and the model vocational institution of Henan province.