PHOTO: Group picture taken during inauguration of the Tapping School
By Austin J. Wisseh
Division # 16, Margibi – Liberia- Firestone Liberia, the country’s largest natural rubber plantation company, has 2023 inaugurated its first official tapping school.
Firestone has been operating in Liberia for nearly 100 years and this is the first time a rubber tapping school has been set up in the country.
The school is intended to train tappers in modern ways of obtaining latex from the trees, improving their skills and expertise, and subsequently improving productivity.
L-R Siaffa Johnson, Production Manager, Mathew V. Jacob, Director Estates Departmenrt, Seamus Gunton, General Manager and Nic Yiannakis, Director, Agricultural Operations
Mathew V. Jacob, Director Estates Department Firestone – Liberia, commended the company for opening the tapping school, and applauded the General Manager for making trainings an integral part of the transformation the company is undergoing.
Mr. Jacob said the training will help the company economically maintain the rubber trees for about 24 – 26 years.
He further stated that the department identified and evaluated trainers that were qualified through evaluation to provide trainings to the tappers. He said that the tappers will be taught both practical and theory and that evaluations will be done to determine whether a tapper has met all the requirements.
Seamus Gunton, General Manager, Firestone – Liberia LLC spoke of the Natural Rubber Company’s commitment to invest more in its workforce.
“I find training fundamentally important to any team and what we’re bringing here is a modular training program. There will be various modules covering all the agricultural practices relating to rubber; whether it is nursery management, planting, grafting fertilizer application, panel and tapping management, etc. All will be covered in a course. And each section will be a module. The modules will help you basically understand the tasks and key points. The most important part of the course is the practical. Sitting in the classroom you may not record everything straight up in one go. It takes time to learn and remember it; but if you do something in practical experience, you’ll remember it. I need everybody in this team, be it supervisor, headman, superintendent or manager; you need to pass the module training program. That’s the plan,” Seamus concluded.
“I am so happy today for this school. We will be trained to some things we can or cannot do. As our leaders are putting us together for this training, we are so happy. I want to say thank you to our managers as we get these trainings and go back in the fields, we will do our best for the promotion of the company and ourselves,” said Moses Kollie, a rubber tapper at Firestone Liberia.
Meanwhile, classes at the Tapping School are in full swing, as some learners/tappers look to improving their skills, many will get fresh knowledge for themselves and increase viable production for the natural rubber company, the management of Firestone has said.