Scania has established Ghana’s first vocational training scheme for heavy vehicle service technicians. Scania and other industry partners will provide in-kind and personnel support with additional funding from the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ).

The present Government Technical Training Centre annually enrolls approximately 120 students for three-year vocational training as service technicians for passenger cars and minibuses. However, there has never been any training programme for heavy vehicles in the country.

Within the three-year training curriculum for service technicians, approximately 25 students per year will have the opportunity during their final year to specialise in mechatronics for heavy vehicles with training in, for example, systematic trouble-shooting using digital diagnostics systems.

Scania has delivered 245 buses for the newly established Accra Bus Rapid Transit system. These buses must be serviced and repaired by professional personnel with specialist skills, which have been difficult to find on the Ghanaian labour market.

“The demands on service technicians at present are very different from those in the past,” says Fredrik Morsing, Managing Director of Scania West Africa. “Nowadays, you need both good theoretical and practical training, computer and language skills as being service-minded with customers. The service technician is now a highly qualified person that you entrust with your valuable asset.”

The new “Heavy Duty Mechatronic” vocational training programme will be part of the Government Technical Training Centre but will be carried out at a 500-square metre building within Scania’s premises. Scania also provides the major part of industry funding for this project and will in addition to providing vehicles also contribute to developing training content.