Botswana Police Partner with TVET Colleges to Address Vehicle Maintenance Challenges

Botswana Police Partner with TVET Colleges to Address Vehicle Maintenance CChallenges. The Botswana Police Service (BPS) has partnered with the Ministry of Higher Education to address police vehicle maintenance challenges while providing Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) students with practical industry experience.

The partnership was formalised through a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA), which will allow police vehicles to be serviced and maintained using workshop facilities at selected TVET institutions.

Minister of Higher Education Prince Maele said the agreement would create opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience in vehicle maintenance while contributing to the servicing of the police fleet.

Maele acknowledged that the Botswana Police Service continued to face significant resource constraints, particularly concerning its vehicle fleet. He noted that maintenance and servicing difficulties had compounded the challenges.

Under the agreement, the programme will initially be piloted at six institutions across Botswana. These are the Botswana College of Engineering and Technology, Madirelo Training Centre, Kang Brigades Centre, Kweneng Rural Development Association, Palapye Technical College and Maun Technical College.

The initiative will bring together public services and vocational training institutions, allowing workshop facilities to be used for police vehicle maintenance while exposing students to practical work relevant to their training.

For participating students, the programme is intended to provide experience in a working environment where technical skills can be applied to vehicle servicing and maintenance.

For the Botswana Police Service, the arrangement provides access to workshop facilities at the participating institutions to support fleet maintenance.

The initial pilot phase will establish the programme at the named institutions. However, details regarding its duration, the number of vehicles to be serviced, the costs involved and the expected number of participating students were not provided in the announcement.