Water Institute inducts first junior technical trainees
The Ghana Water Institute, formerly the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) Training School, has inducted its first batch of junior technical trainees into the institute.
A total of 150 students, 53 of them females, are senior high school and technical institution graduates.
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The students will undergo a two-year speciality training in water treatment, with courses on plan mathematics, water quality, raw water, meters, water finance, organisational ethics and procurement.
“Seven months after my job offer, we successfully registered this institution as a potential training provider with the Accreditation Board.
“Twelve months after the institutional accreditation, GWCL Training School was granted programme accreditation to run technical and vocational education and training (TVET) programmes,” the Rector of the Ghana Water Institute, Dr Zulkarnein Nashiru, told the Daily Graphic at the induction ceremony.
The school was established in 1965, but was renamed after receiving accreditation from the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training to run technical programmes.
Training
Dr Nashiru explained that the restructuring of the institute was in line with the GWCL board's vision to appropriately respond to the changing needs in the water sector.
He said the Managing Director of the company, Dr Clifford Braimah, then conceived the idea to rename and change the landscape of the school.
He explained that the students would be given theoretical and practical training on water treatment over the two-year training period.
He said the objective was not only to train junior technical officers for the GWCL, but to also make them self-reliant to address unemployment in the country.
Experts needed
Dr Braimah noted that the institute was part of the company’s efforts to train experts for the water sector.
“There are a lot of water institutions that require expertise, which is why GWCL overhauled its training school to serve the needs of the company and also other institutions in the water sector,” he said.
He advised the students to be decent and to abide by the code of conduct of the institute during their time in the school.
He warned that any students found to have applied with wrong credentials would be expelled from the school.
“Last year, we had to dismiss about 30 students with wrong credentials. Let me also send out a warning that when you get recruited into the GWCL, you will not be allowed to change your course to go into Human Resource.
“You would have to resign, go and study it and come back,” he said.
The ceremony was attended by the Deputy Managing Director for Finance and Administration, GWCL, Dr Remy Puoru; Deputy Managing Director for Special Projects, Peter Deveer; chief managers, workers of GWCL, and staff of the Ghana Water Institute.