Africa-Press – Angola. The director of the Institute of Agro-Food Technology (ITA), Guilherme Pereira, highlighted, this Thursday, the effects of cooperation with France in the field of training staff in the manufacturing sector.
Regarding the visit of the French President, Emmanuel Macron, to Angola, the official said that the training results from existing agreements between the two countries.
He added that within the framework of this partnership, two ITA professors are in France doing specializations in areas linked to the agro-food processing industry.
According to the official, the Angolan government intends to transform ITA into a reference for professional success in the agro-industry segment.
Based on this strategy, “we continue to select the best senior students for training in France and to increase the group of teachers and researchers”, said the director.
Guilherme Pereira informed that within the scope of the policies of the Queen Njinga a Mbande University (URNM), which aim at the creation of a university campus, the construction of housing was planned to accommodate professors and students of the institution.
The ITA director pointed out, among the institution’s difficulties, the scarcity of professionals in the areas of nutrition and food safety.
The official also pointed out the lack of water holes, which has conditioned the proper functioning of some equipment in the research pavilions, in addition to the meager budget allocated to general maintenance of the building.
The teacher, Ornelas Sawambo, trained in France, said it was a pleasure to see the recent graduates of the aforementioned institute working in various companies in the country, where they make their contribution.
Ornelas Sawambo referred that the institution is receiving good references from the companies where the staff trained at ITA work.
The 3rd year student, Pedro Caetano, considered the experience a good one, as they learn to transform and preserve food.
Fourteen of the 25 ITA teachers assigned to the URNM were trained in France, within the framework of the cooperation agreements signed between the two countries in 2008.
In France, Angolan teachers were trained in the degrees of masters and doctors in the areas of agro-industry research.
That European country began training the ITA faculty in 2015, the year in which the institution provisionally began academic activities in rooms attached to Colégio no 01 Amílcar Cabral.
Inaugurated in 2020 by President João Lourenço, the institution was built in an area of 79 thousand square meters and has 10 classrooms, with a total capacity for 350 students.
ITA also has a research center with 10 laboratories, including two teaching and eight research laboratories, 19 offices, an auditorium for 250 people, a cafeteria and a multipurpose room.
Also noteworthy are two plant and animal food transformation pavilions. The institution has 201 students enrolled in the current academic year, from the first to the fifth year of the Agro-Food Technology course.
In 2020, ITA launched the first 30 graduates in agro-food technology engineering for the job market. PBC/AL
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