Nakawa Vocational Training Institute is weighing options on how to admit more students when the Universal Post O-level Training program starts.
The Institute is one of the vocational institutions that have been chosen to implement the UPOLET program when it kicks off this year.
Speaking to Uganda Radio Network, the Principal Musoke Matovu explained that there are a number of ways the institute can maximize the number of students who will be joining the school for skills development.
Among the options being considered, the school plans to operate a shift system to include students who study during the day and have others attend the evening lessons or switch students between classes and available workshops.
The school is also weighing an option to have a program running during recess in a bid to handle a big number of Ugandans.
The Institute is preparing to take on an extra 50 students under the UPOLET program in the areas of electronics, electricity, motor vehicle mechanics, Woodworking, plumbing and sheet metal welding and fabrication, and building and concrete practice.
The school has been recruiting 50 government sponsored students and more than 50 others on private sponsorship.
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Matovu explained that the school would love to limit the number of students per lecturer to 25 for effective skills transfer noting that for effective skills transfer, students are required to spend more time in the workshop and currently the school only has just one workshop for each of the eight disciplines offered. The school has 67 teachers but many of them were being paid from monies collected from private students.
Matovu, however, observed that over the years students were losing interest in carpentry which he attributed to how society looks at a carpenter especially those who work in the open. But Matovu observed that though this course is shunned by the students, majority of those who study carpentry are always among the first to be employed.
The Principal added that government had agreed to increase its contribution per student per term from 1800 shillings to 4,600 per student per day. According to him, though the money was not enough, it was a positive development in the right direction.
Recently, James Mugerwa, the Principal Education Officer in charge of vocational training said government had availed 15 billion shillings to kick start the UPOLET program in vocational institutions through expanding facilities like laboratories and workshops.
The two year course leads to an award of a crafts certificate and students may later attend a one year advanced certificate training course before joining university or a polytechnic of their choice.
