REGIONAL ICT TRAINING AND RESEARCH CENTER

1. REGIONAL ICT TRAINING AND RESEARCH CENTER

2. Case for action • In Rwanda, there has been a shortage in technical skills in ICT especially at the intermediate level. Businesses in the ICT area have been often forced to send their staff abroad for training or rely on expatriates to fill core posts. This was expensive and called for the establishment of a training center in the region.

3. Mission • As a regional ICT training and research center, we focused on excellence in research on appropriate technology for poverty alleviation, applying ICT for development in our region, produce ICT professionals, and update them on the rapid changing ICT innovations.

4. Vision • The Center’s main objective is to support sustainable economic growth through capacity building in ICT within Rwanda and the Region. Build a strong indigenous technical human resource base that would assist in the effective application of ICT throughout the economy, increasing employment opportunities and enabling efficient delivery of services.

5. Location The Centre is located at the KIST Main Campus that is located in Upper Kiyovu, Avenue de l’Armée, in the heart of Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda.

6. KIST 1 building, 1st floor, Room 104

7. Staffing • Since December 2006 the RITC has almost doubled the number of its staff according to the man power needed in the growing center and still has to recruit more staff. • Administration: 4 • Academic:12 • Technicians: 4 • 25 OLPC Trainers • 20 Secondary School Teachers

8. Infrastructure • 5 Computer labs were established and equipped with 20 high-speed computers in each + 1 Testing center (Prometric & Pearson VUE) • 12 projectors to facilitate our lecturers to project their notes. • 4 offices well furnished for the administration and staff of the center

9. A computer lab

10. Training programs organized • Professional courses: • Introduction to CISCO Routers • Implementing and securing a wireless Networking • Unix/ Linux • Graphic communications • Visual Basic .net • Advanced access

11. Pupils with their certificates after training Kids between 8- 14 years old

12. Training of secondary school teachers 8000 teachers since May 2004. key partners: • MINEDUC, • KIST, • RITA, • Microsoft Partners In Learning (PIL) Africa and • World link.

13. Tailor made courses • 35 demobilized soldiers in Computer Hardware & Maintenance Engineering, Software development & Management and Networking for 6 months each program. The aim of these trainings was to help them get jobs as technical consultant in ICT. Some have started partnering with computer hardware and Maintenance companies and continuing their studies in the IADCS . • We have also organized different courses in Intermediate ICT skills for different institutions like AERG, CNLS MAP Project, RALGA, MTN, Afritel, SORAS, RRA, etc. • RITC initiated a program teaching the utility and functionality of computers to children between 8 and 14 years old. That is called ICT for Kids program and is organized every school holidays/ vacation. The program is divided into 2 levels: beginners and advanced. More than 206 children completed the program.

14. Training Secondary School Leavers • The Washington State 4H trained 20 secondary school leavers at RITC in February 2005. The 4H youth for Business and Information Technology (BIT) Alliance provided learning experiences for students to develop computer technology and business skills. This training was focused on: • Applied Computer Technology • Digitools • Digital Web Design • 3-D modeling, animation and other Sample applications. • The BIT curriculum was prepared for students to act as student technicians for their school computer labs or to be able to set up their own small businesses related to computers (Computer Service, training services in Digitools or Digital Web Design). Twenty secondary school leavers have been enrolled in this training.

15. Young generation in training Secondary school leavers

16. Establishment of International collaboration • RITC worked closely with Microsoft Southern, Eastern Africa in the organization of different trainings • Since November 2006, we started offering the Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE) training program, and conduct the exams. This was a challenge for many people, as they had to travel to Asia, Europe or South Africa to study the same course. • Since February 2008, we trained more than 100 IT in Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) • RITC is the only one recognised testing center for Prometric & Pearson VUE in Rwanda.

17. RITC introduced the International Advanced Diploma in Computer Studies (IADCS)in Collaboration with the British NCC education. An excellent program with a perfect balance between theory and practical work. The participants study locally and get an internationally recognized certification and can get easy access tomore than 60 Universities in UK and many other universities in the world

18. NCC Education To upgrade the level, RITC is planning to launch the completeIT degree pathwayin collaboration with the NCC Education soon. After 3 years, the students get a degree from Greenwich University.

19. International Advanced Diploma in Computer Studies (IADCS) IADCS class

20. One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) The OLPC training is inline with the MINEDUC plan of distribution of those laptop. So far 10.000

21. Challenges • Academic level of trainees • Age difference • Supporting equipments • Time constraint • Training of trainers

22. Thank you