E-conference: Identifying Training needs for the East African telecentre.org academy

Location: Kampala, Uganda
Created By: Esther on 23-Apr-2008 5:12 AM

Identification of training needs has taken centre stage during the first e-conference discussions on the telecentre academy.
Based on the experience of Latin America and Asia, telecentre.org’s Dr. Shadrach Basheerhamad the lead facilitator identified three broader categories of training needs to include; soft-skills, technical skills and technological skills.
Soft skills are skills required to complement the basic managerial skills required to manage the telecentres. These include negotiation skills, basic communication skills, marketing skills, skills to motivate people, skills to raise awareness among communities about the benefits of ICTs.
Technical skills are more about the use of ICTs as tools in different streams. For instance, the use of ICT applications for learning how to start a business around bee-keeping as a self-employment option could be considered as an example here.
Technological skills refer to mostly the basic computer skills.
Drawing from the experience of the Nanasala project in Sri Lanka, some of the training courses provided include management, business plan preparation, marketing, book keeping, content and Services, monitoring and evaluation, Internet Technology and networking.
However one of the unanswered questions is whether the academy will be online, offline or both.
Dr. Basheerhamad advised that it depends on several factors that govern the connectivity, the spread of the academy partner among others.
What do telecentre practitioners think about an offline or online academy?

Some of the unanswered questions include:

• Who should the academy target? Should it be telecentre managers, staff, volunteers,

etc, to improve their skills and knowledge and thus the quality and range of services they can provide OR even community users in general? Should these target groups be prioritized?

• What are the training content and resources that are readily accessible in Africa?

 

• Curriculum adaptation process often requires an academy partner with experience in handling distance learning at the same time non-formal educational curriculum. Do the telecentre leaders from Africa subscribe to this trend? If yes, who could be classified as academy partners in Africa? If not, what are the alternative suggestions to curriculum development process?

 

• Do the leaders have any suggestion for piloting the curriculum? Should it be done at a national level? Or at a regional level? What are the pros and cons?

 

• How could the established and well-functioning telecentrenetworks play a role in the academy (apart from jointly certifying theaward)? Could they identify mentors and counselors who could offer support to the learners?

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