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Malawian charity worker to gain vital work experience at Hewlett.
Allan Nkata, a 23 year old Malawian, is visiting Hewlett Civil Engineering at the company’s Cross Green Training Centre in Leeds in order to gain vital work experience to help him in his new role as Managing Director for the Krizevac Project Plant and Vehicle Hire in Malawi – a registered UK charity committed to ending poverty in some of the world’s poorest countries.
Originally a trained accountant, who graduated from Leeds University in 2008, Allan has swapped his calculator for construction boots to join the Krizevac Project team out in Malawi, Southern Africa where he’ll be managing a busy team of people renting out everything from JCB’s to cement mixers, 30 tonne tippers to Land Rovers.
During his visit to the UK, Allan will spend a week’s valuable work experience at Hewlett’s purpose built Cross Green Training Centre - an accredited training centre to CITB/CPCS standards - where he will be given training in a range of practical construction and plant based activities.
Says Steve Vickers, Training Manager at Hewlett: “Hewlett is a strong supporter of the Krizevac Project and we were only too happy to extend our plant hire and training expertise to the charity’s newest recruit.
“We have a purpose built training area and plant hire area at Cross Green from where we operate a successful business, offering in-house training and hiring out all types of Construction Equipment and Construction Plant. So Allan will be in very capable hands!
“He will be given the opportunity to learn all about plant operation which is vital if he is to gain a thorough understanding of all aspects of his new enterprise in Malawi.”
George Furnival, Krizevac Project UK Coordinator says the Krizevac Project believes in giving people a hand up not a hand out. She comments: “By harnessing the power of hundreds of hard working Malawians we are helping the country generate its own solutions to ending poverty in the country.
“Allan is our latest recruit, chosen to lead our latest venture because he is a driven and dynamic young man with huge ambitions to help transform the prospects of his own country. He has excellent leadership potential, but he lacks experience of operating a rental business. This is where Hewlett’s generosity of time and experience will be massively beneficial to him.”
So far Krizevac Project has shipped a range of trucks, backhoes, telehandlers and other machinery for its own building projects. The Plant and Vehicle Hire venture is the latest enterprise to the Krizevac Project’s group of successful not-for-profit businesses in Chilomoni, a township just outside of the largest city in Malawi where unemployment and chronic poverty are major issues, and the income it generates will be ploughed back into the project and help to fund vital initiatives such as orphan care at the Chilomoni Children’s Centre.
Hewlett has also formed a partnership with Krizevac Project at its i54 training centre in Wolverhampton where the training division of the leading civil engineering company will help to provide the best training expertise to enhance the skills of new recruits before they are flown out to Malawi where they will help to transform lives by passing on the invaluable skills.