Mantrac Nigeria introduces Caterpillar Technician-for-Africa on-line initiative

Caterpillar recently introduced Technicians for Africa Project, an e-learning website for engineering graduates who aspire to become technicians in Nigeria and other African countries.

 The website leverages Caterpillar’s exiting state-of-the-art, e-learning solutions and makes them available for anyone ambitious to develop a career as a heavy equipment technician. The initiative would help to breach the gap that exists between human labour and required skills.

 In Nigeria, three of the candidates who successfully completed the Caterpillar e-learning modules were recently honoured and given their certificates and Caterpillar Kits by Mantrac Nigeria Ltd at their head office in Lagos.

 Mantrac Nigeria’s managing director, Edmund Martin-Lawson, supported by the company’s service operation manager, Ahmed Ragab; Lateef Adenle, technical training manager; and territory marketing coordinator, Olamide Alliu, hosted the presentation ceremony.

 Martin-Lawson, while congratulating the participants for being part of the pilot phase of the Caterpillar’s corporate social responsibility initiative, described it as “giving back to society for the beneficiaries to upgrade their skills and foundation knowledge of Cat products and their operations.”

He noted that two other candidates who successfully participated in the scheme in Port Harcourt would also be honoured.

 Ragab recalled that access to the basic Caterpillar Technician curriculum was free. He noted that those who registered for the curriculum had the opportunity to upgrade their knowledge and upon successful completion of the curriculum, were given their certificates of completion to support their chances of getting jobs.

The free, e-learning curriculum, according to Adenle, contained 18 modules of easy-to-understand, technical insights into safety and basic fundamental systems like electrical, hydraulics and power train.

He noted that Caterpillar was recognising the technicians by giving them certificates of completion, declaring that the first five persons who completed the modules were equipped with Caterpillar special tools to aid their work in future, assuring that their experiences would be shared on Caterpillar’s website.

Earlier, Adenle had conducted the participants round various departments of Mantrac Nigeria, including the workshop, re-building section and generator assembly plant, to acquaint them with the operations of the company.

One of the participants, Adebowale, an engineering graduate from Lagos State University (LASU), thanked Mantrac and Caterpillar for the opportunity, saying that was exactly what he needed to upgrade his skill. He craved for more of such opportunity to qualify as Caterpillar-certified engineer in future.