Tech infrastructure giant Ericsson has unveiled its partnership with Rwanda to develop ICT professional program targeting over 10,000 students from different academic institutions across the country.
The partnership with Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and the Worldwide E-Learning Campus (WEC) in Rwanda was launched on Friday 6th November 2015.
The program that is available from 1st November 2015 aims at developing professional ICT competencies in Rwanda.
The country is set to increase employment in the ICT industry, ensuring long term capacity development in alignment with the SMART Rwanda digital education mandate.
According to WEC, the program adopts a blended learning approach and aims to improve the skill sets of ICT professionals, an area that Rwanda has been recorded with remarkable efforts and success in Africa.
WEC is a progressive higher learning institution endorsed by the Workforce Development Authority (WDA), the Rwandan Ministry of Education’s agency responsible for providing a strategic response to the skills development challenges facing the country across all sectors of the economy.
It is the only institution in Rwanda to have an accredited Cloud Computing qualification program and is an internationally accredited industry certification testing center in Kigali.
Rwanda’s ICT Ministry, WEC are committed to working with Ericsson to provide access to specific online training via the Ericsson Academy; its corporate learning division, which delivers Ericsson Technical Cloud Certification programs amongst others.
“This collaboration will leverage Ericsson’s technology leadership in enabling a SMART Rwanda, building long-term skills and local competencies in its IP and Cloud portfolio areas. This will help realize the Networked Society in Africa, and we are excited to support Rwandan students on this exciting journey,” says Roti Balogun, Ericsson Academy in sub-Saharan Africa Head of Learning and Development.
Ericsson will also provide where possible, internships, experiential training and future employment.
Students will be able to follow the Ericsson technical certification program tracks with access to Ericsson courses such as IP Technology and Networking, Software Defined Networks and Cloud.
Courses can be completed at various stages, whilst students are completing options from a Certificate in Computer Maintenance & Web development to a BSC in Forensic Computing degree with WEC.
The program further assures students that those not interested in the formal certification or academic program track can access a suite of free ICT online courses on the Ericsson website and secure a basic Ericsson ICT Professional Foundation Certificate on completion of all courses and assessments.
WEC says; the collaboration is outstanding for Rwanda as it guarantees a dual award of academic and industry validated qualifications.
Rwanda is set to increase employment in the ICT industry and ensure long term capacity development.
That it also prepares potential students for future employment in the ICT industry and attempts to address the gap identified in the Rwanda Development Board’s ICT Survey 2012 report.
According to Dr. Innocent Rusagara, Principal of Worldwide E-Learning Campus; the collaboration serves as a great achievement for the WDA-skills development fund project which the students can benefit from through the WEC.
Ericsson’s commitment to education in Rwanda also includes the global initiative Connect To Learn, launched in the Millennium Village in 2013, in an effort to use mobility, broadband and cloud solutions to enable over 1000 students and teachers in Mayange to benefit from global learning resources. This Friday’s announcement further strengthens this commitment to Rwanda’s development.
The program will be a long-term collaboration between Ericsson and WEC. It is funded through the government of Rwanda’s Skills Development Fund, which has sponsored more than 8 000 Rwandan students across the country since its inception.