Technical Education Vocational Entrepreneurship Training Authority (TEVTA) Corporate Affairs Manager Clive Siachiyako says the institution has started engagements with the relevant stakeholders in the transport sector to ensure that all driving schools comply with their Act.
This follows the announcement by Minister of science and technology Felix Mutati to have driving schools apply for registration and accreditation from TEVETA.
Mr. Siachiyako said the training center will engage to ensure driving schools comply with the Act and in turn enable driving schools to benefit from government empowerment programmes.
“This is now the provision in the TEVETA Act which provides that anybody offering training in vocational or technical skills should register with the institution,” he said.
Mr. Siachiyako observed that some driving schools are claiming lack of funds to enable them to register and thus are shunning the provision.
“They need to understand that it is important for them to register with the institution so that they can easily benefit from empowerment programmes,” he said
He added that in 2017 the institution in collaboration with the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) developed a syllabus for driving schools but was not implemented due to a number of challenges.
Mr. Siachiyeko said the Ministry of Science and Technology is now providing an incentive, instead of paying a K9, 000 like the way other training institutions pay, they can pay half that amount so that they can register.
He said payment is being done to encourage partnership with the private sector to ensure that more youths can have access to driving schools.
He said the transport and logistics sector is one of the sub-sectors that provide a lot of job opportunities for the youths hence the need to impart driving skills for effective participation in the development of the country.
ZANIS reports that on March 25, this year, Mr. Mutati announced in a statement that driving schools that are already compliant with RTSA Act should apply for registration and accreditation with TEVETA at a 50 percent discount on registration fees.
The offer is available to driving schools that are already registered with RTSA and available up to December 31, this year.
And yet ANOTHER totally useless and expensive regulatory authority. Zambia is the WORLD CHAMPION in running rid!culous bodies that achieve nothing, and after a month of existence don’t even know themselves why they are there
The problem we have in Zambia is that we have too many regulators in one sector and all demand fees. Driving Schools are licensed and regulated by RTSA, so how does TEVETA come in? I thought TEVETA is concerned with vocational training institutions. Does driving qualify to be in that category? Of course since the demise of MIMOSA Driving School there has been a challenge to produce professional drivers. ITC has been trying to fill that gap and many transport companies, especially truckers, do their own in-house training. We always talk about reducing the cost of doing business and the fees craze is one of them. So it’s understandable that driving schools are shunning TEVETA. By the wat what’s this empowerment thing?
More red tape