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Left to right: State Minister Michelle Müntefering (AA); Representative of the Federal Bundestag Anita Schäfer; Federal President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier; Getachew Negash, Director General of the Federal TVET Agency; Teshale Berecha, Director General of the TVET INSTITUTE; Prof. Dr Joachim Freiherr von Braun, Director of the Centre for Development Research.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier landed in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, for his official state visit on 27 January 2019. His agenda included meetings with Ethiopian Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed Ali and President Sahle-Work Zewde. President Steinmeier also took the time to visit the Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) Institute, where Ethiopia’s technical and vocational teachers are being educated. After being welcomed by management, he visited automotive, woodwork, and electrical engineering workshops, where he was warmly greeted by teachers, teachers' trainees, and the departmental management. He observed demonstrations on how to use the equipment and asked a few questions about the institute and its students.
As part of the Investment Programme for TVET, NIRAS IP Consult has been supporting the TVET Institute since 2004 in the occupational sectors of automotive, electrical engineering, garment, textile & leather, and metal manufacturing and construction. International experts provide training for teacher trainees, develop teaching and learning materials, and support the institute in purchasing training equipment. The experts for automotive and electrical engineering are permanently stationed at the institute with their own offices on the premises.
Phase 2 and 3 of the programme focused on supporting the institute and lead cluster institutions (LCIs) all over Ethiopia in purchasing, safely using, and maintaining reliable training equipment to ensure the long-term sustainability of the programme's investment. Phase 4 focuses on support for the satellite teachers’ training institutes coordinated by the institute, the LCIs, and agricultural polytechnic colleges all over Ethiopia. A new gender component aims to strengthen gender-sensitive activities and structures at the supported colleges.
The presidential visit was welcomed at the institute as it provided an opportunity to showcase the achievements made so far in training TVET teachers in Ethiopia.
For further information on the programme, visit the Federal TVET Institute's website here.
Take a look at other skills development initiatives in which NIRAS has been involved by clicking here.
