Mantrac Tanzania has gone the extra mile to support the Cat Technicians for Africa (T4A) programme by donating more than 40 different components to the Institute of Heavy Equpment and Technology (IHET) with the help of Caterpillar.
The equipment donated (see list below) includes a complete C6.4 Electronic Common Rail Engine, and other engine, power train and hydraulic components. The aim is to encourage IHET students to enroll and complete the T4A modules and give them the resources needed to put what they’re learning into practice.
Mohamed El Attar, Service Operations Manager at Mantrac Tanzania, said: "T4A gives Mantrac and Caterpillar a valuable opportunity to walk into different communities which are less familiar to both companies and helps to improve the quality of technicians in the Tanzanian market through free training for students.”
"In the coming years I’d like to see T4A training embedded in all technical schools and universities’ curriculum, on top of the practical summer training for students in Mantrac workshops. The technical universities graduates will be a pool of ready technicians to be employed in Mantrac or various large companies in Tanzania,” he added.
On top of the donated equipment, Mantrac Tanzania’s training department carried out a four-hour introductory training session on the C6.4 Common Rail Electronic Engine.
IHET staff were reminded of the need to continue promoting T4A students’ participation as they were not among top five performers from Tanzania colleges or institutes in the last quarter. A major problem for their students completing the T4A programme is their lack of computer skills. However, IHET is hopeful T4A enrollments will improve after introducing a computer pre-requisite programme.
The handover event was attended by IHET board members and instructors as well as several Mantrac Tanzania management staff eager to help shape the future technicians of Africa.