The Volvo Group has been running vocational school projects for mechanics in Africa for several years. Now the first vocational school project for truck drivers has been launched. Recently a formal opening ceremony for the new school in Ethiopia was held and the Group plans to start similar programmes in several other countries.
The training for truck drivers will take place at the Selam Technical and Vocational Centre in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.
“This is the school where we have set up a vocational school for mechanics in a previous project,” explains Johan Reiman, who is responsible for support to vocational training within the Group.
Fundamental course
A total of 480 students will be trained each year. Around 40 of them will be new to truck driving and will take a fundamental three-year course in driving trucks safely and reducing their environmental impact. They will also attend courses in English and IT.
The remaining 440 students are already working as truck drivers. They will take two six-week courses to improve their driving skills from the perspective of safety and the environment.
Trucks from UD Trucks
The Volvo Group is providing three trucks from UD Trucks, a Volvo bus and two simulators. In addition, a large part of the training of the instructors at the school will be managed by representatives of the Volvo Group.
“UD Trucks, the Japanese brand of Volvo Group previously known as Nissan Diesel, has more than 40 years history in Ethiopia supplying high quality heavy and medium duty trucks, covering logistics, distribution and construction and providing high standard aftersales support.
We’re thrilled to participate driver training project by providing three UD heavy duty truck Questers, and by doing so contributing to the development of Ethiopia both when it comes to infrastructure and competence development, says, Mourad Hedna, President UD Trucks MEENA.
He participated together with Hiroshi Yokofujita, Sales Director, New Market, UD Trucks MEENA and Jeferson Machado, Sales Director, East Africa, UD Trucks MEENA, during the recent formal opening ceremony of the new school.
Reduce the number of accidents
The training will be held in cooperation with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).
Ethiopia’s road accident statistics are not good and many of the accidents involve heavy goods vehicles.
“According to a WHO report released in 2013 there were 77 fatalities for every 10,000 vehicles registered in Ethiopia. We hope that by training drivers we can help to reduce these numbers. There is also a shortage of trained drivers in the country and we will be giving our customers in Ethiopia access to a pool of well-trained drivers. We are proud to be involved and to help our customers and supporting the Ethiopian society in this important area. By training people locally, we are also supporting sustainable growth and prosperity in the countries where the Volvo Group does business,” explains Johan Reiman.
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