I am a person who wants to progress in life...
An interview with Peter Tembo, Driver Trainer at the ITC in Lusaka.
Peter is a longstanding employee of ITC and is extremely dedicated to his role. He is one of five core driver trainers who have received training inputs from the UK via Transaid which have enabled him to upskill. Peter currently conducts HGV and motorcycle training.
Peter, you have been working at the ITC since 1990, what inspired you to become a driver trainer?
I started working at ITC as a cleaner and then I moved to be the general stores officer and driver But I am a person who wants to progress in life and later I was promoted to become a driver training instructor. Now I train drivers and conduct motorcycle training. I greatly enjoy my work with students. Each and every day I try to inspire and encourage them to progress.
You have seen how things have changed hear since Transaid’s involvement with ITC. Please tell us about it.
We are really benefiting and learning. I had health and safety training on how to do manual lifting and how to carry things. I also completed a course on tyre safety management – before that I was not aware of some of the ways to check tyres. I have also learned how to present knowledge to my students in a more informative and interesting way. Now I also know how to efficiently change and use the truck gears.
Each of the trainers brought to us by Transaid has his own style and we are learning a lot from them. I hope that the support from Transaid will continue. We really appreciate all the training we have received. You people should continue with the support for ITC so we can continue to raise the driving standards in Zambia. Effective driver training is essential to reduce the number of road crashes and that is very important to remember.
How have your students benefited?
I think they have benefited a lot. Students are given evaluation forms at the end of each course and they are very happy. The feedback from students has improved since Transaid became involved in the project. There is a need for a strong focus on road safety in Zambia. For instance, many people who come to ITC to learn do not know road signs. We teach students discipline and how to move and navigate hazards – all these skills are important.
Describe the difficulties of driver training. What are the key problems?
The most important problem of trainees who pass their test is that they are not always able to find employment directly after. A person who passes his HGV exam and then has to wait three months before he becomes employed very often forgets things. Our students have to weigh up the cost of taking time to train as opposed to drivers taking a job with no training. We also suffer from lack of resources. Until Transaid’s intervention, our students could not practice driving with containers and trailers as we did not have them. Thanks to the donations from the UK companies our students now know what it feels like to carry a load and how to change gears with significant weight behind them.
What are the plans for the future and what further inputs would you like to see?
ITC thank Transaid for all this support and hope that you will continue to help us to keep raising driver training standards. The inputs received come from those with much experience who can share their knowledge from the UK. We think that it would be great to organize a driver’s exchange whereby one of the drivers in Zambia could come to the UK and benefit from additional training and then return to Zambia to share this knowledge.
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