John Ekongo
13 November 2008
The Namibian Maritime Fisheries Institute (NAMFI) this week held a consultative workshop with stakeholders on the services that it is offering to the public.
The training institute has embarked on a new training path after realising that its graduates face some challenges on completion of their studies at NAMFI.
This retrospection came as a result of complaints from students who could not find opportunities to gain practical training despite meeting all criteria.
Some trainees upon completion of their studies are left to their own designs to find employment, with only a few fortunate ones able to penetrate the job market.
Cited as major is the lack of support from Namibian fishing companies in providing practical training at sea to NAMFI graduates, stressed the Centre's Deputy Director Cornelius Mbundje.
He said NAMFI is also hampered by resource constraints. This makes it difficult to acquire its own vessel in order to provide this vital component of the training. Instead, the company relies on the goodwill of Namibian fishing companies, who are not always willing to take chances with graduates as they prefer workers already familiar with the sea.
To redress this, NAMFI acquired state-of-the-art simulation equipment especially for the Department of Navigation to partially give the students a feeling of the "real thing", but, said Mbundje: "It is just simulation and it is not close to the real thing". He was outlining the objectives of the workshop to the participants.
At the same time, the workshop also aimed at finalising the sea-going training agreement between NAMFI and the industry. Once finalised, it will culminate in a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between NAMFI and various fisheries, marine and industrial companies.
With the MoU in place, some of the problems highlighted might become a thing of the past. Officiating at the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Fisheries Kilus Nguvauva urged the stakeholders to work towards speedy implementation of the MoU, adding that the marine industry is a crucial sector that can play a greater role in the realisation of Vision 2030.
He reminded the participants that the country's long held desire to have highly technical and qualified personnel to chart the growth of the economy and the marine industry is no exception to this task.
Aside from NAMFI, the workshop was attended by various heads of fishing companies, marine industrial companies, heads of government marine agencies, the Namibian navy, policy makers and the Namibian Qualifications Authority, which handed over an accreditation certificate to NAMFI's director Polli Andimba.
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