(GROHE ) - Last Friday, February 23rd, the Don Bosco Technical Institute in Ebolowa had a flurry of high-profile guests shuttle into its campus. Amongst them were the Bishop of the Diocese of Ebolowa, Mgr Phillippe Alain Mbarga, and the German Ambassador to Cameroon H.E Corinna Frike. Indeed, all were present in Ebolowa to inaugurate a workshop built within the campus by GROHE, a German company, and a global leader in complete bathroom solutions and kitchen fittings.

Under its GROHE Installer Vocational Training and Education (GIVE) programme, GROHE has just added Cameroon to its network of six countries in Africa where it runs the programme alongside Benin, Ghana, Morocco, Pakistan, and Nigeria.

GROHE’s GIVE program will give the students at the Don Bosco Institute of Ebolowa who are interested in plumbing, an opportunity to practice on world-class sanitary equipment, in a live working environment with adequate tools, thus giving them an upper hand in the market as noted by Jorg Nitschke, the programme coordinator. This will make them knowledgeable and more competent in an industry that is now developing products for the future both in terms of design and sophistication and in environmental and sustainability issues.

The GIVE programme apart from giving young people skills to face life, also aims to supply the sanitary industry which has been struggling to attract young and competent talent to the sector. In a country like Cameroon this is even more evident as we have been witnessing a dwindle in skilled construction workers from electricians, to masons, to plumbers.

More than 3,000 students aged between 16 and 25 in Africa, Europe and Asia have benefitted from the GIVE Program. Training sessions are led by experienced technical trainers and at the end of their training, the student gets an internationally-recognised certificate.