Africa-Press – Angola. In total, 1,951 new agrarian technicians, trained in agricultural management of forest resources, plant and animal production and agri-food, by the Instituto Técnico Agrário do Huambo (ITAH), were launched into the job market in 2008 and of these, 300 achieved a direct employment, the director of the institution announced.
António Sapalo said that many of these staff are part of state and private companies, linked to the agricultural sector, farms, food technology centers and aviaries. The training, he continued, lasts, on average, of four years, while basic training can be done in less than a year.
The director of the institution expressed satisfaction with the academic and professional quality of the staff placed in the job market, as they are talents that do not contribute to the development of Huambo.
For the management of the Instituto Técnico Agrário, he said, it is a pleasure to see the trained staff succeed and manage to meet expectations. “The institution is considered today a reference in the training of basic technicians of agricultural mechanization and middle management of animal and vegetable production”, he highlighted.
Boarding School
The Institute has a boarding school with the capacity to accommodate 260 students, mainly young people from various provinces of the country, in search of quality training. António Sapalo said that since the creation of the institution, more than 800 technicians have been trained in different specialties.
This year, he continued, the Instituto Técnico Agrário do Huambo enrolled 1,185 students, from the 7th to the 13th grade, in the courses of Vegetable Production, Animal Production, Agricultural Management of Forest Resources and in the professional basics of Agricultural Mechanization and Agricultural Assistant. Currently, he said, training is provided by 72 teachers.
Basic Course
The Instituto Técnico Agrário do Huambo, he said, created a course to empower families living in the vicinity of the institution and help them to strengthen agriculture. “The school has a basic course for 7th and 8th grade students, especially given to students who live around the school,” he said, adding that the school’s management decided to implement this course to educate children, whose parents are farmers, with technical knowledge about agricultural activity.
The Institution
With the capacity to accommodate 1,440 students, the facility has 20 classrooms, with physics, chemistry, biology, IT and animal husbandry laboratories, with modern equipment.
António Sapalo explained that, in addition to the theoretical component, students also receive practical classes, in agricultural fields, cultivated by them. “We have an aviary that we use in animal production classes so that students learn to administer vaccines.”
The Agrarian Institute, he explained, has an essential role for the student population, as technical training helps to strengthen the Education sector. In the coming years, he said, the institution intends to increase the number of courses, with Forest Resources and Product Conservation among the priorities.
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