German President visits Scania and West African Transport Academy

On December 12th, the President of Germany, Mr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier came to visit West African Transport Academy (WATA).

WATA is located in the premises of Scania West Africa in the Free zone, Tema. The Swedish bus and truck manufacturer Scania recently supplied 245 modern city buses for Accra.

These are being used to set up the new public transport system for Greater Accra, named Aayalolo and managed by GAPTE.

Well-trained drivers and technicians for heavy-duty vehicles are needed to implement the project, but Scania noticed the Ghanaian labour market could not provide it in full extent.

Therefore, Scania has teamed up with a Ghanaian training school, GTTC, and ZF, WABCO and BOSCH to form the West African Transport Academy (WATA). For WATA's cooperation with state vocational schools, Scania has sought cooperation with German development co-operation in the form of a public-private partnership.

German Development Cooperation supports vocational training in Ghana in the focal area of sustainable economic development (commitments for 2015 - 2018: € 10 million in financial cooperation and € 5.6 million in technical cooperation, plus special funds ).

The aim is to support the reform of the TVET-sector in Ghana and to develop the traditional apprenticeship system into a modern and demand-oriented vocational training system.

In public-private partnerships (PPP) as with Scania, the German dual system can be implemented very well as a flagship project. The part of the PPP financed by Germany employs an instructor at Scania and advises and supports the vocational school, the Government Technical Training Center (GTTC).

The Federal President of Germany and his entourage were welcomed by Mr. Fredrik Mors-ing, Managing Director of Scania West Africa, and Alan Walsch, GIZ Country Director in Ghana.

The tour included a stop at a truck set up for training purposes and the group had the opportunity to speak with students from the GTTC themselves, who are currently completing a specialization as a heavy-duty mechanic in their third year.

The tour ended with the President getting to see 20 of the 73 women who are currently being trained to become bus drivers of the Aayalolo buses – an initiative known as “Women Moving the City”.