DĂŤLI, 11/07/2017 (FDCH) – The integration of fellows in the various ministries represents a good model, which should continue to be implemented whenever the beneficiaries of FDCH’s Scholarship Programme finish off their studies.
This model has been implemented by some ministries, namely the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the Ministry of Health (MoH), while other public institutions whose employees benefit from a Scholarship under FDCH’s Scholarship Programme are automatically reintegrating their former employees as soon as they complete their studies.
Just recently, the Ministry of Finance has organised its first welcoming function for the Graduated Fellows who are going to be integrated in this Ministry. During this event, each of the former Fellows has given a presentation on a topic related to their filed of studies. This event took place at the function hall of the new building of the Ministry of Finance at Ai-Tarak Laran, Dili. The following guests attended the event: the Executive Secretary to the FDCH, Mr. Isménio M. da Silva and his team as well as the MoF IS Unit Head, Mr. Joanico Pinto.
«This integration programme represents a good opportunity for FDCH to participate in the assessment of the Scholarship Programme after the beneficiaries finish off their courses,» Mr. Isménio M. da Silva, the Executive Secretary for FDCH, stressed.
The Executive Secretary has also stated that MoF integration programme represents the closest model to what FDCH considers best regarding the management of qualified human resources.
Moreover, FDCH wishes to receive feedback regarding their partnership with the Ministry of Finance, so that both institutions can identify any bottlenecks and, thus, improve the support given to Fellows during their studies, their communications as well as the scholarship payment system.
«MoF integration process is a fantastic programme, which FDCH wants to start implement in the other institutions that are also eligible for funding,» the Executive Secretary stated.
According to the Agreement signed between the Ministry of Finance and the Graduates, once the latter have completed their studies, they must apply their newly acquired knowledge and skills to support MoF services for a minimum of 3 years. The majority of the former Fellows has studied Information Technology at Charles Darwin University (CDU), Australia.
«IT is not as developed in our country as it is in others; nevertheless, I wish to work together with the Ministry of Finance towards the development of our technology, as finance is a very important area which is also the base for many others; therefore, if we have a weak IT system, we may jeopardise it and let others defraud us,» Zulmira Merico Tilman, one of the Graduates, claimed.
Zulmira has also confessed that she struggled quite a bit in her first year living in Australia, as she found the Australian curriculum to be very different to the Timorese one and the education system to be far beyond the Timorese one. Nevertheless, students have worked hard and made use of different resources to achieve their goals, they have focused entirely in their studies, they have studied in groups and researched through the Internet so that they could catch up.
«We would like to thank the Government, through FDCH and the Ministry of Finance, for having effectively made all the payments, which allowed us to carry out our studies through,» Zulmira added.
Aquino Valentim Mota, another FDCH’s Fellow who has completed his course at Charles Darwin University said that they have acquired theoretical knowledge, but they were to make all the efforts to be able to apply them effectively at their workplace and, thus, contribute to the improvement of the IT area.
«Although I am just a recent intermediary, there’s one thing I know best, i.e. I want to make my contribution and, by working with the Ministry of Finance, I hope that we can implement the things I have learned and that we can all work as a team,» Aquino said.
The presentations of the majority of the graduates focused on the following areas: online databases, information systems, web applications and programming language application. The Executive Secretary to FDCH and his team as well as the Head Officer of the IS Unit at the Ministry of Finance have attended the Graduates’ presentations.
As yet, the Human Capital Development Fund, throughout the Ministry of Finance, funds about 30 Fellows who study at the Flinders University, CDU and STIS in Australia. (Media FDCH)