UNIMA Drills Records Managers

The University of Malawi through its library section held a short course training workshop from 6th to 9th June 2022 in the Little Theatre. The training workshop was organised under the theme “Professionalism and Ethics in Records Management in the Public and Private Sector”. The training drew participants from the Roads Authority, Malawi Law Society, Central Medical Stores Trust, and the host UNIMA. 24 participants were equipped with skills in Records Management, Ethics for Records Managers and File Management.

In his welcoming remarks, the Vice Chancellor of University of Malawi, Professor Samson Sajidu, said UNIMA is committed to offering programmes that are relevant to the contemporary socio-economic development needs of the country. 

“It is within our strategic direction that we should be offering such short programmes that bring together key stakeholders in the public and private sector. As we all know, there have been cases of leakages of confidential documents and mishandling of confidential information in various offices. UNIMA has therefore risen up to address this challenge by organising this workshop so that record managers know the Dos and Don’ts of their profession and are able to avoid doing bad in the presence of good,” he explained.

Taking his turn to speak, UNIMA College Librarian, Brian Sitima Ndau concurred with the VC in commending the need for such training. “People that handle records need to have ethics because we have seen how unprofessionalism in record handling affects not just the doer but even other people around,” he said. 

On behalf of the participants during the closing day of the workshop, Mr. Limbani Chipala from Central Medical Stores Trust expressed gratitude on how the training changed their professional and personal perception towards records management.

“Our institutions sent us to this training in response to how cases of leakage of documents are on the rise. I am pleased to confidently say we have indeed learnt and enriched our professional ethics. We are going back to our workplaces knowing how to manage records professionally and ethically,” he affirmed.