Digital Skills in East Africa
This week, Tunapanda had the opportunity to meet and host a delegation comprised of members of the ICT Ministry, ICT Authority and other public and private sector stakeholders from Rwanda. The delegation came to Nairobi to meet and learn about the challenges surrounding digital skills and employment, and it was great to meet and talk to them all. On Tuesday, five of us went to a round table discussion to talk about various issues surrounding digital skill development for youth. It was encouraging to see that Tunapanda’s solutions are innovative and some of our ideas could spread to Rwanda. Here are the take homes from the rest of the team:
Wenslas Ahura
I had to interact with few guys during a round table discussion one of them being an official from the educational ministry of Kenya working under TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) Mr.Langat who actually caught my attention. TVET is an organisation in kenya in charge of registering and approving training and vocational facilities in Kenya. One big thing I learned from Mr. Langat is that we should always be cautious in decisions we make in each and every day of our lives. Lets always picture something in two ways be it a positive and negative aspect in order for us to avoid future regrets after making decisions.
Florah Mwende
I engaged in round table discussion under the topic: “which policy measures can be taken by governments to foster digital job creation”. My team members and I managed to come up with several policies one of them being that the government need to ensure that there is a standardized curriculum to teach/train digital skills. This is the session I noted that no matter how young we are, our ideas are never young. This was triggered by the fact that I was seated round a table with ‘big’ government officials who actually gave me a chance to air out my views. Seeing them listening to me was an awesome feeling and it gave me motivation to keep going.
Jackline Mwende
I interacted with few guys during a round table discussion which was amazing talking to Investors and listening to awesome speaker. I learnt a lot, GIZ solution from Rwanda (they solve problem using apps and teaching youth and farmers). I also learnt that it is important to train trainees what is needed in the market not teaching trainees for the sake of teaching. It is the right of everyone to learn about technology especially kids.
Maureen Moraa
I had the opportunity to be part of a team from Rwanda to discuss the elements that can be considered for programs that are offering digital skills training. The team comprised of delegates from the Rwandan chambers of ICT and one cool guy (Fundi) who was actually just building apps. I had a chance to share with a lady from Rwanda, Kevine, about young girls and the various ways we can be able to spark interest in them. She was fascinated with what we had done with our initiative for young girls in Nairobi and Turkana. My take home from that day was Kenya, Rwanda and Germany are doing awesome things in the digital world and now we trying to find ways of working together.
On Thursday, we welcomed the delegates to our facility in Kibera and told Tunapanda’s story. It was a good opportunity for our team members and trainees to meet and interact with other people from other countries who are trying to solve some of the same problems we are. We got a lot of good feedback, and look forward to working with some of the delegates in the future!
