The 4th of June 2015 marked the first English Proficiency Program in relation to the provision of English Language Instruction to Non-Citizen Employees according to Section 17 (2) of the Employment of Non-Citizen Act 2007. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Government of Papua New Guinea, through the Department of Labour and Industrial Relations and Bewani Forest Products Limited on the 8th June 2014.
In the signed MOU, both parties are desirous of ensuring that non-citizen employees should acquire the necessary language proficiency after they have entered Papua New Guinea. The syllabus prepared was based on basic English words consisting of Nouns, Questions, Verbs, Common Places and Common Related Industrial Words.
This project is a combined effort between BOPPL Human Resources Team and the contractors HR Team. An Indonesian translator was arranged for their sake. During the lesson, the English words taught were translated for better understanding of the lesson. Students are paying attention to the lesson taught. Overall, the responses from them were encouraging as there were many positive interactions between the teachers and the students. The first lesson had an encouraging number of 85 attendees.
This will be a continuous once a month project head by BOPPL/BFPL Human Resources Team. Reports, attendance list and progress summary of the students will be compiled on a quarter yearly basis to the Secretary of Department of Labour and Industrial Relations on the language proficiency and project progress.