SHORT HISTORY AND COURSES

SHORT HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE

The college was officially opened in 1947 and was in those days a Technical Training Center. Today Port Moresby Technical College is one of four main Technical College in the country (there are also three Business Colleges) and it specializes in ten trades. In the 1980’s the main course programme was the PETT or Pre-Employment Technical Training Certificate. This course taught one single skill and the entry level was Grade 10. In the 1990s a new course was developed and that was known as the Technical Training Certificate course and entry level was Grade 12.

Now there have been further developments and a series of courses are being developed and are simply known as National Certificate courses and they range from National Certificate 1 (NC1) at basic knowledge level to National Certificate 6 which is National Advanced Diploma (NAD) level.

NATIONAL CERTIFICATE 1 COURSE – Entry to this course is either Grade 10 or Grade 12 but we do expect students to have good quality passes (C) to enter the course especially in Mathematics, English and Science. These courses are managed and organized by the National Department of Education. The duration of the course is 20 weeks (Semestral courses).

NATIONAL CERTIFICATE 2 COURSE – The prerequisite to this course is successful completion of National Certificate 1. This course is managed and organized by the National Department of Education. The duration of the course is also 20 weeks. On-The-Job Training or work experience attachment with cooperating agencies is part of the NC2 program.

On successful completion of the course students seek apprenticeships and employment in industry. For National Certificate 2 the end of the course can be coupled with an NATTB trade test – the cost of this is additional and is payable directly to the National Apprenticeship Trade Testing Board.

NATIONAL CERTIFICATE 3 COURSE – This new course does not have a definite length as yet but training is equivalent to tradesman status. (More information on these courses will follow shortly).