Africa-Press – Botswana. Girls aspiring to be engineers have been urged to improve their grades .
Debswana Human Resource manager Mr Boikhutso Mphiyane said this during annual Girls in Engineering Conference 2023 in Orapa on Friday.
Debswana, De Beers, Women in Engineering South Africa partnered to host the workshop which was aimed at creating awareness on the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) for female junior secondary school pupils in Boteti.
Mr Mphiyane said schools performance had declined so much that schools tended to celebrate a pass rate of 37 per cent.
Debswana, he said, aimed to improve women representation at different levels, noting Debswana had a scholarship programme targeting top performers.
Mr Mphiyane said they had a training school in Orapa, where people interested in mechanical programmes such as boiler making, fitting and electrical among others were trained.
“It is very important that if you are within this region, you make it a point that when such opportunities come to the fore and when you are qualified you apply.”
He emphasised that good grades were needed for one to participate in such training.
Mr Mphiyane said Debswana had partnered with Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) citing that their students were sent on attachment to BIUST.
He stated they were currently exploring opportunities for students to undertake research work at the university and that Debswana was also considering sponsoring students to study engineering at BIUST in the near future.
“It is very important that you make yourself relevant,” he said, further noting that there were many roles coming.
He said Jwaneng Mine would be going underground and Orapa Mine in the next 10 years would follow suit, noting that the mines would need human skills such as data analytics, data interpretation, coding as well as automation among others.
When motivating learners, Ms Pearl Mariano, a mining engineer, informed future engineers that being an engineer was not all about being born smart, but was about how hard one worked.
Ms Mariano noted that as an engineer one had to think outside the box and provide solutions to challenges.
She urged future engineers to be adaptable and flexible since the outdoor would be the only office to some of them, adding that it was a nice experience but not easy.
“We rise to the challenge and give solutions, we deliver on anything that is required of us,” she emphasised.
She encouraged the engineering aspirants to be bold and focus on what they wanted to achieve, and be fearless in pursuit of their career paths.
The technical specialist at Ground Probe Company, Ms Latoya Sekopa said she had wanted to be a doctor when she was doing form five, but after completing Cambridge, she left for China to study Information and Computer Engine.
Her plan, she said, was to beat men at their game, because she was told it was a man’s field, adding that she got a first class and was the first woman in her company.
She shared that her aim was to make a mark in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) industry.
Sharon Udemba, a form three pupil at Ditsweletse Junior Secondary School said she could now see that women were not lesser than men and could venture into any career path.
Another pupil, Ms Chibuya Mothusi said she had been inspired to work hard and learnt that men were not in any way better than women.
The workshop, she said, would help them discover opportunities in engineering.
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