HRDC hosts an Open Day and Stakeholder Business Breakfast Seminar in Palapye

The Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) has prioritised to embark on a number of stakeholder engagement for as a vehicle to educate, inform and most importantly seek feedback from its diverse stakeholders, customers and clients.
A number of targeted stakeholder communication platforms have been implemented over time. In an effort to continuously improve on the same, HRDC hosted its inaugural Open Day on the 2nd September 2017 at the Palapye Old Mall. HRDC Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Raphael Dingalo was on site to launch this momentous event as one of a series of Open Days scheduled to be held across the country.

In his keynote address, Dr. Raphael Dingalo expressed his sincere gratitude to the Palapye Leadership and community for having embraced HRDC in their locality. "This is an important day in the history of HRDC as this is our inaugural Open Day and it will accord us the opportunity to interact with our key stakeholders including members of the public’’, emphasised Dr. Raphael Dingalo.

One of the key objectives of the Open Day was to take HRDC closer to the community in Palapye especially to those communities that may not have the means to easily access services and products offered by HRDC and in the process impart knowledge on the mandate of HRDC as well as to seek face- to -face feedback on the type of service they receive.
Inarguably, that proved to be the case in Palapye in cognisance of the number of people that visited HRDC departmental stalls that exhibited at the Open Day. The attendants included; the village leadership, students, business owners and the general public. Some of the departments that exhibited at the Open Day were the Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF); Statistics, Research Development and Innovation (DSRIDI); Institutional Planning and Work - Place Learning.

Giving a vote of thanks, the Area Councillor, Hon. Mphoentle Kabelo appreciated the initiative of an Open Day and engagement with Communities. Hon Councilor noted that as the village leadership they have since learned a lot from the interaction and are in a better position to inform the public the mandate of HRDC and the benefit they can derive from same HRDC.
Prior to the Open Day, on the 1st September 2017, key stakeholders in Palapye were hosted to a stakeholder Business Breakfast Seminar at Majestic Five Hotel. Some of the main objectives of the seminar were to create awareness and educate stakeholders about the mandate, functions and strategic initiatives undertaken by HRDC and to Interact with stakeholders and get their view about effective ways of transforming Botswana from a natural resource to a human resource based economy.

The attendees included Levy Payers; Education and Training Providers and Teachers from the local junior and secondary schools within and around Palapye.
“Our Organisation coordinates all efforts to develop Botswana’s Human Capital. The National Human Resource Development Strategy (NHRDS) of 2009 highlights that Botswana needs to transform to a knowledge based economy. This will be evidenced by the production of new and innovative goods and services, development of sophisticated production processes and education and training that produces high level knowledge workers”, said Dr. Raphael Dingalo, Chief Executive Officer of HRDC.

In one of the thought provoking presentations, the Manager, Claims Assessor Mr. Ndiwo Makula implored levy payers to utilise the training levy, as failure to utilise the levy indicates that Companies are not training their employees. He highlighted that HRDC will intensify work-place visits to guide companies on the process of developing and implementing their training plans and eventually be legible to claim from the training levy.
In conclusion, one of the representatives from the Palapye Business community commended HRDC for the effort in educating their stakeholders on their mandate especially the programmes, initiatives and services offered.