Corporate News
By OTIATO GUGUYU
In Summary
- The school will initially take in 200 students and also teach steel assembling, bricklaying and masonry, scaffolding, railway technology and safety as well as environment management.
China Road and Bridge Company (CRBC) has opened a
school in Voi to train Kenyans on railway construction, operation and
management.
The school, opened on Tuesday, will initially take in 200
students and also teach steel assembling, bricklaying and masonry,
scaffolding, railway technology and safety as well as environment
management.
It will offer a three-month course targeting engineers, technicians and artisans.
Speaking at the launch of the school at a ceremony
in Voi, Han Feng, the standard gauge railway project deputy manager,
said the institution will serve as a talent pool for both CRBC and
Kenya.
More such centres will be set up at other project
work sites, he said. The company plans to transfer technical skills to
1.6 per cent of the project workforce which will reduce to 1.3 per cent
at the end of the venture.
Share technical skills
CRBC said in a statement that it had employed
12,000 people in the Sh327 billion railway project, adding that 65 per
cent of its employees are from coastal counties and more than 20 per
cent are women.
The jobs are expected to peak at 30,000 with 400 beneficiaries of the technology transfer.
CRBC said that some locals had already been trained
on the production of railway building materials. This comes only weeks
after CRBC conducted a competition for local employees to test their
acquired skills from Chinese workers.
Each employee had been assigned to a Chinese mentor
who would teach and share technical skills as railway construction
progressed.
The railway is being build to match Chinese Class
One standards – designed for robustness and low maintenance. The
technology is planned to eventually cross over to other east African
countries including Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
Passenger trains will travel at a top speed of
120km per hour while freight trains will attain a maximum speed of 80km
per hour. The railway is expected to create jobs, boost the economy and
promote regional integration.
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