Ministry of Water and Environment, Ministry of Education and NWSC sign Tri-partite MoU

The Ministry of Water and Environment, Ministry of Education and Sports and NWSC signed a tri-partite MoU aimed at skilling Engineers, plumbers and other technicians in the sector.

 

Background
In July 2012, a tri–partite Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), Directorate of Water Development (DWD), and the Directorate of Industrial Training (DIT), under the auspices of Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) was signed. The duration of this MOU was five (5) years, and expired at the end (July 2017)
Following the successful implementation of the previous MoU and programme, a new MoU for another five years (2018-2023) was signed.

The primary objectives of the MOU are to: (i) develop a highly skilled national technicians’ workforce in the water sector, which shall competently run and maintain water supply, sewerage, and sanitation systems, within and outside the jurisdiction of DWD and other Water Authorities. The trained personnel will; enhance the schemes’ operational efficiencies; ensure better asset management; and reduction in non–revenue water (NRW), and (ii) create synergies with stakeholders and develop capacity at various vocational skills levels, qualification standards, assess/examine candidates and award certificates/qualifications.

Benefits of the MoU to NWSC

Benefits to NWSC
NWSC will achieve the following benefits from implementing the MOU:
• Enhance vocational hands–on skills for technicians (plumbers, electro–mechanical technicians, electricians, customer service advisors, welders, water quality experts) for the small towns under DWD jurisdiction.
• Earn additional income from training DWD technicians – through External Services (ES) – since the financing mechanisms of the MOU training activities will come from DWD budgets.
• Strengthen our collaboration with DIT and DWD.
• Enhanced our corporate image, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and visibility by enhancing skills within the water sector.

Representing the Ministry of Water and Environment, NWSC Board member and Director, directorate of water development in the Ministry of Water and Environment Eng Aaron M. Kabirizi said that all technicians and plumbers will be required to be certified.
“We want to know the different skills they attained from training institutions.” he said.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, NWSC MD Dr. Eng Silver Mugisha said a number of NWSC plumbers and technicians have learnt on the job and, therefore, there is need to test the skills.

He added that the programme is in line with the ongoing staff development plans and the corporation has made good strides towards developing training materials and vocational infrastructure/training centres at Ggaba and Kachung Vocational Skills Development Facility coming on board very soon.

“We have plumbers who have worked with NWSC for over 20 years and we need to certify them.” he said

Aggrey Kibenge, the education Ministry undersecretary, said certification would enable local technicians and plumbers to compete for opportunities even at regional level.

Dr Martin Kalibala, the manager training and capacity building at NWSC, said since 2016, NWSC is been assessing engineers and technicians from DIT.
“It is good for this programme to be rolled out. It has improved service delivery and reduced on costs of monitoring workers, since they are now competent.” he said

Dr Kalibala said that upon completion of the training and assessment, NWSC technicians will be given Worker’s Practically Acquired Skills (Worker’s PAS) certificates

Last year, over 232 NWSC graduated from the Ggaba skills Development Facility [VSDF].
This year, a total of 284 graduands will graduate at the centre come 09th November,2018.