THE government, through Arusha Technical College (ATC), will start training aspiring tour drivers with special off-road skills as well as language courses effective from August.
The Safari Driver Training programme will be undertaken through the ATC Automotive Engineering Department.
The special ATC driver training programme targets those who will be handling Four Wheel Drive (4WD) vehicles, such as Toyota Land Cruisers, Nissan Safaris and elongated Land Rover Defenders as well as the large over-lander trucks used by mostly foreign tourists venturing into the wilderness of national parks or game reserves to undertake game viewing, photography and filming safaris or hunting.
According to the head of Automotive Engineering Department at ATC, Dr Peter Mashingo, the new tourism focused driving classes are expected to start in August this year.
Apart from dealing with gears, clutches and steering wheels, the training programme will also cover foreign language courses, especially English, French, Germany and Spanish to help local driver-guides communicate well with their tour-focused passengers who usually want to know many things en-route.
“We have already recruited foreign language experts who are to train the driver-guides in English, Germany, Spanish and French, but more tongues will be included in the future according to demand,” said Dr Mashingo.
The ATC Automotive Department specifically also targets to train drivers on how to negotiate their way on rough and flooded roads and other challenging environments during game driving or tracking.
ATC Training Sequence Coordinator David Mtunguja explained that driving courses at ATC started two years ago and so far more than 700 students had benefitted from such training undertaken in association with the Vocational Education Training Authority (VETA).
“We expect that, after the introduction of Special Safari Driving Courses for Tour Driver-Guides, in five months, more trainees from within Tanzania and possibly outside the country will enroll in and benefit from the new courses,” he said.
Situated in Arusha, the Northern Zone Tourism Circuit, which is home to the Ngorongoro Crater, Mount Kilimanjaro, Lake Manyara, Tarangire and Serengeti National Parks, handles more than 80 per cent of all tourists bound for Tanzania.
The country receives 1.5 million leisure visitors per year, but according to Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Dr Khamis Kigwangalla, Tanzania targets to increase the number to 2 million tourists by next December.
