By Amanuel Endris

Linkage between industry and private sector is important in creating demand-driven Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes. This will transform Kombolcha Polytechnic College into a Centre of Excellence in Road Transport sector, particularly in automotive technology. In order to achieve this, the college set up Industrial Advisory Board (IAB), whose members came from the labour industries or companies.

Members of the IAB during the performance review workshop

The IAB held a meeting to review the performance of the East Africa Skills Transformation Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP) which is supported by the World Bank. The Chairperson of the IAB and the Mayor of Kombolcha City, Dr. Kemal Zeynu welcomed participants and thanked management and staff for their teamwork and concerted effort that helped to secure funding worth USD 12.85 million from the World Bank through EASTRIP to transform the automotive technology department into a Centre of Excellence at national and at the regional level.

Dr. Zeynu said that the project would convey valuable message, not only to the college but also to the local community, industries, and the country at large. He urged the board members to work in collaboration with the college by offering expertise advise and support for proper implementation of the project.

Abraham Lebeza, the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist for EASTRIP briefed and reported on the current progress of the project in the scheme of realizing Kombolcha Polytechnic College Automotive Technology Department to be Centre of Excellence.

In the report, he noted that the spread of COVID 19 has had a negative impact on the performance of the project. The report noted that there is low level of female participation in automotive technology sector.  Participants suggested that an occupational standard should be prepared with the full participation of industry experts.

 The Writer is a public relations officer at Kombolcha Polytechnic College