Regional Seminar Proceedings 1990

7.1 COMMON TRAINING MATERIALS

Basic courses in mathematics and technical English . For example, could be designed to cater for different countries. All other training material needs to be tailored to suit the specific needs of each country or each project . The Botswana Training Unit now has 17 modules covering all aspects of their training course.

7.2 LENGTH OF TIME FOR TRAINING

Present arrangements are:

• Zambia: Three months formal training with 25-30% of that time spent in the classroom. The trainees then spent several months on site near to the project headquarters and afterwards a member of staff will follow them to their own disctricts to advise.
• Botswana: The gangleaders course lasts 16 weeks; eight weeks in the classroom and eight weeks on the training site.
• RRM Mbeya, Tanzania: All recruited trainees will have worked for one year as headmen with the project. They then spend one month in the classroom, followed by two months on a nearby site then a further nine months under general supervision.
• RRM Tanga, Tanzania: The trainees start with two weeks familiarization on site, then four weeks in the classroom followed by four and a half months on a training site. After this first six months period they are allocated to sites with the trainers following up over the second six month period.

Part of the reason for the RRM projects using a twelve month training programme is to gain approval from the Ministry of Communication and Works for official recognition of the course.

It should be a precondition that in all projects involving training, a counterpart contribution should be written into the project document for cooperation in the institutionalising of training. The training courses should be accepted by the relevant ministries as quickly as possible to enable local staff to advance within their own government system. The Zambian project is taking its first step towards integrating their training with the Ministry of Works.

7.3 MOTIVATION OF TRAINEES

Generally younger new recruits show a greater willingness to learn than "old hands" who are being introduced to new methods. However refresher courses for "old hands" are important to introduce them to the new system even if they cannot cope with the main training programme.

Rewards such as promotion on addition of a salary increment will encourage staff to train and perform well on courses, especially those returning for a second or third course.

The roads programme in Kenya has been running for at least fifteen years and they are now experiencing difficulties in finding people.

One suggestion to ease this difficulty was to run problem solving courses instead of refresher courses. The training could take the form of discussions on site problems brought forward by the participants and therefore would be more relevant to the practising foremen/supervisors.

7.4 TRAINERS OR TECHNICIANS - WHO SHOULD BE TRAINING

Ideally a person who combines both skills should be the best trainer. It was felt that the person who is doing the training must be tchnically capable as a lot of the training takes place on site and he must be able to answer the questions that arise. However a technician must have the ability to communicate well if he hopes to impart knowledge as a trainer. The question was raised as to the possibility of experienced engineers being offered training as trainers.

7.5 ASSISTANCE FROM LOCAL TRAINERS

It is a great advantage if the expert can be assisted by a local trainer as early as possible to assist with local problems, language difficulties and accurate feedback from the trainees.

It is important that there is a good relationship between the trainer and the engineer at site. Innovation should come from the site and be fed back to that the course and course notes can be adapted to suit the new development.

In Mozambique the on site training was carried out by the local supervisors, who were used as instructors. All material was prepared in Portuguese by them. Botswana has courses for training trainers and are assisted by the local teaching college on subjects such as lesson plans. Lesotho has also trained trainers successfully. Kenya offers a course for training trainers in the Kenya Technical Training Institute.

As a result of the proposed expansion of labour based work in the road sector in Tanzania there is an urgent need for co-ordinated training. The presently available Government courses do not offer any practical training which is essential in such a practical subject, however need for proper training in labour based techniques jis not always appreciated.

7.6 SHOULD TRAINING BE KEPT ON A SEPARATE SITE

By keeping training sites separate from the other project sites, the trainer can concerntrate on achieving the quality of finished road he would like the gangleaders or foremen to produce. There were mixed opinions as to whether the construction techniques should be tried on site first, then the training materials developed and courses started, or whether the training should be done before any start to construction work. The fear in leaving the training to after the start of construction is that its importance is lost when production targets are being given priority.

7.7 CHOICE AND AVAILABILITY OF TRAINING MATERIALS

A lot of training material which has been prepared for road projects can be adapted to suit new projects in different countries. The problem can be in getting this material quickly and easily. It was therefore suggested that a list be drawn up of the available training material which could be circulated to all projects.

As a lot of manuals are large and expensive to reproduce and post, there was a suggestion that ILO Geneva could circulate training manuals and other training materials on computer diskettes. They would be easier to send and could be easily edited and altered by the project staff who receive them.

There were several requests for more videos, some on specialist subjects such as stone arch bridge construction, and other more general ones but filmed in Africa. At present the ILO training videos are from Thailand.

Some projects were making their own videos and if copies were sent to ILO Geneva perhaps they could be edited and used generally. There could be tchnical difficulties with the quality and durability of the video tapes if taken on a home video camera. A video camera was recommended for all projects as an aid to training.

7.8 COURSES

At present, the emphasis for funding of courses by donors, lies in the funding of PHDs and Mscs. Donors should be encouraged to look at the possibility of funding training for the lowere levels of staff such as promising technicians. They could be offered further training in local institutions as well as overseas courses. This would not exclude the continuing funding of PHDs and Mscs.

ILO provides training courses through their training centre in Turin. A syllabus is available from ILO Geneva. In addition the ILO is offering courses in the management of labour-based programmes in Kisii, Kenya. This is aimed primarily at engineers but it is hoped to expand to other target groups in the near future. Information is available from the ILO Regional Adviser in Nairobi, and from EMP/INFRA in Geneva.

7.9 AGREED PLANS FOR ACTION, TRAINING MATERIALS