The Ministry of Industry (MoI) said that it would commence an on-site workplace daycare service to infants of its female employees so as to minimize their home and workplace burden, reduce parental anxiety and increase productivity at work.
Eyerusalem Damete, Director of Ministry’s Gender Issue Office stated that the daycare which becomes operational in the coming two months would have benefits for the Ministry and employees as it minimizes employees’ absenteeism and turnover during postpartum period.
Opening a daycare at work place is somewhat a new experience and only few institutions, such as the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and Metals and Engineering Corporation, have built so far, she said that other institutions should take the experience in order to create conducive work environment for their employees.
Apart from setting up the Daycare, the Ministry is tasked to empower women. She stated that back in the days; the education and training manual of the nation had allowed scholarships and school fee coverage for students who want to further their education at second degree level and above.
However, Ministry of Industry has revised and improved the manual to benefit employees with educational achievements of different levels to further their education. Benchmarking the best experience of Agriculture and Education Ministries, the Office has provided fully funded full-time scholarship for its employees.
Queens, National and Gage colleges are the institutions that are currently offering the scholarship for Ministry’s employees.
Concurrent to this, the Ministry provides training packages in different areas depending on the gaps observed in the assessment done beforehand.
