Features: CITIC BN Vocational School (Angola)

As the project sites of CITIC Construction are mainly situated in developing countries and regions, we provide vocational skills training to increase employment in those areas so as to honour our commitments as a responsible corporate citizen.

In Angola, for example, we work with youth to help them acquire the skills they need to become professionals, which reduces the burden on their families and helps to develop a talent pool for the country. CITIC Construction has also introduced the BN Vocational School (BNVS) charity vocational education model in Angola with the founding of the CITIC BN Vocational School (Angola) — CITIC BNVS.

CITIC BNVS now offers three programmes, at no cost to students, in electrical, mechanical and construction engineering. The mechanical engineering programme runs nine months (including a three-month internship), and the electrical and construction engineering programmes are one year (including a three-month internship). On 29 April 2014, the school admitted the first 81 students, who were evenly divided into three classes. On 29 October, another 27 students were admitted into the mechanical engineering programme. These students have already graduated and begun working as interns in jobs provided by the consortium led by CITIC Construction and are now full-time employees as of January 2015. The graduates of the construction and electrical programme will soon join them as interns.

The success of CITIC BNVS has been widely noticed in Angola and motivated hundreds of students to seek admission to the school in the hope of changing their future through vocational training.

By the end of 2014, CITIC Construction had invested approximately USD700,000 in CITIC BNVS, which has used the funds to build the school, pay teachers and provide students with food and stationery.

CITIC Construction now plans to introduce this model to other project locations such as Venezuela.