The Business Management Education Centre (BMEC), says it will start providing training allowances to TEVET students who are doing attachments in the upcoming six months.
This was disclosed on Friday morning when officials from BMEC, Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TEVETA) and Employers’ Consultative Association of Malawi (ECAM), met in Blantyre to seal the training allowance deal.
Speaking during the event, Winstone Bergi who is BMEC Country Coordinator, said the motive behind this idea is to help address some of the challenges that TEVET students, especially those doing attachments face.
He said in this pilot phase, which will run until September, four students from the Northern Region, three from the Central Region, and three from the Southern Region, will be receiving a monthly training allowance of K100,000 each.
“BMEC – UK is an awarding body based in Britain and being ECAM member, we learned that one of the challenges faced by technical and vocational students is the lack of internship opportunities because firms are not willing to take TEVET students on board as trainees because they cannot manage to pay them monthly allowances during the time of internship.
“As BMEC, our wish is to support the internship program by paying the interns’ training allowances for the period of internship (six months) with the various firms through ECAM. The pilot phase has been funded to the tune of MK4,500,000.00 for 10 interns,” said Bergi.
Bergi further said BMEC believes this is in support of the major purposes of the TEVET Authority of contributing to human resource development through sustainable skills training and development to spearhead the country’s production and export-led socio-economic growth.
He has then encouraged beneficiary students to make good use of this opportunity for career exploration and development and to learn new skills claiming internship is a professional learning experience that offers meaningful, practical work related to the field.
On her part, TEVETA Regional Manager for the south Conceptor Bamusi, commended BMEC and ECAM for the idea which she described as timely, saying it will help in improving the welfare of TEVET students.
However, Bamusi complained that most employers in Malawi do not adhere to the Global Quality Apprenticeship Framework of 2023 which requires them to sign an agreement with TEVET students doing attachments at their institutions.
Responding to the concern, ECAM Executive Director George Khaki, said they are currently striving to make sure that its members are complying with the requirements of the framework.
“We have already taken some steps. We are a member of the Global Quality Apprenticeship Network to which our members have subscribed and when they do so, they do follow the rules which include signing contracts and paying apprenticeship allowances,” said Khaki.
To completely deal with the concern, Khaki is of the view that more companies should be encouraged to become members of ECAM.
