UBTEB – Godwin Works for Crown Beverages and also Employs 6 Staff
Welcome to this short web-series where as UBTEB we have taken an initiative to trace down our Graduates who have gone through our skills competence based assessment program and have been able to make something for themselves and have an impact on their Society and community.
The main aim of this docu-series is to highlight the importance of competence based training and the type of Graduates that UBTEB assessment produces.
MWESEZI GODWIN
UBTEB: Please tell us about yourself!
MG: I am called Mwesezi Godwin, I did my Level at St. Micheal High School Ssonde, Mukwano from there I joined Uganda Technical College Bushenyi for my National Diploma in Mechanical Engineering of which I finished in 2013 and graduated in 2014.
UBTEB: Why did you choose vocational education?
MG: Actually I joined technical college not because I had failed. I was financially not stable so I said if I haven’t gotten a government sponsorship at the diploma they can give me government sponsorship, I better go for government at the diploma and then I look for another one at the bachelor level and thats What I did. I got a government sponsorship at UTC Bushenyi under UBTEB and then afterwards after finishing and graduating I again got another sponsorship for bachelors in Mechanical engineering at Kyambogo of which i’m graduating this year December 2018.
UBTEB: How did you get your job?
MG: Actually, it was the best experience when I joined my place of work because at UTC, Bushenyi under UBTEB programming you are supposed to look for people placements for industrial training, the IRO gave me placement at crown beverages with the skills I had attained from UTC Bushenyi. Due to the Practical experience ofcourse crown beverages had to appreciate in industrial training and immediately retain me, they further gave me an appointment and even though I started at a lower grade afterwards I became a technical operator but because of the experience even surpassing the Bachelor guys I had to be uplifted to shift manager of crown beverages.
UBTEB: What are you doing in your current position?
MG: I manage Engineering section we have lines of production. I manage PET section and to be called shift manager, you should be having engineering skills because where the team stops you start from there. Lets say you are on Night Shift ad people from day shift have gone. You are managing almost the whole company so when there is a breakdown as an engineering person who is hands-on, you immediately come in to give advice and to hold a spanner because of the experience you have. Some people may say this one is now a shift manager in Engineering but I improvise and even go ahead and give advice and even do Hands-on to make sure that the downtimes are reduced, no downtimes, no breakdowns and even go into monitoring machines and all this experience I got from UTC Bushenyi
UBTEB: Work schedule and what you do with extra time.
MG: At crown beverages we work 12 hours a shift but we work 3 days and 3 nights shifts and we get 3 days Off but because if exposure I managed to have another company to work on my Off time. Actually I have two companies, Goditech engineering services and Ken catering services. If I’m off in those 3 days they give us I normally go to Goditech the one which makes palettes, if I want to supervise catering am also there because that experience in engineering they teach about Management so I know how to relate to people.
UBTEB: Benefits of a skill based academic program.
MG: When I reach at this point when I look at people who went for bachelors and people that went for technical colleges, I find myself on a higher side because now Iam a shift manager and some are still looking for jobs. I have my friends who we were together in S.6, he went for computer engineering but because of finances he couldn’t manage to finish and stopped in year 3. Me I had finished because I had two years, I had a diploma already, I was employed then I met him and he told me things have failed because of finances I told him its okay and got him a job as a depot manager.
UBTEB: Are people who go for technical education failures?
MG: People who go for technical education are not failures because I think the points I had would have gone for university because I had an A in maths, I had PEM. But many many people see it as failures but for us we are finding it as an opportunity.
UBTEB: Advice to the youths and nation.
MG: As a citizen of Uganda. I think we should look more at job creators not job seekers because when you create your own job you help the nation and add more people into the employment background like my company employs 6 people so have helped 6 people and the people at their homes so am creating Jobs. So Uganda should look at such people, if you do Mechanical Engineering and start a garage maybe the government may look at that and help you, but start small and develop and make it better.
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