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Strengthening
ICT Training in Ethiopia
It was in the 1990’s that computer training centres mushroomed
in every corner of the city in a similar way that characterized
the opening of typing schools in the early 1960s’. Many
young boys and girls thought that a mere testimony in software
application would open the narrow door to employment. The
rest who were rushing to obtain computer training were professionals
such as engineers, accountants, administrators, managers,
secretaries, and other professionals for better opportunities
and future career advancement.
How
to give quality training
Computer instructors should not train the trainees just “which
buttons to press”. Such training is narrow, shallow and
for only short-term value, if any.
ICT
companies on the rise in Addis
It can be noted that out of the total companies listed in
the directory, 102 or 80.3% of them include training in their
services while 61 or 51.2 % conduct sales activities.
The
ABCs of wireless technology
"Wireless" means transmitting signals over invisible
radio waves instead of wires. Television remote controls were
the first wireless devices to become a part of everyday life.
Now the cordless keyboard and mouse, PDAs, and digital and
cellular phones are widely used.
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Editors’
Note
It can
be observed from the Directory of ICT companies as well as
the table at page 11 that the majority of the companies concentrate
on Training and Sales, which can partly be attributed to the
high demand for Training and IT products.
Many individuals
and institutions yearn about the declining quality of IT knowledge
acquisition in private training centres where the search for
IT knowledge is growing at an unprecedented level, especially
in Addis Ababa. The decline is partly explained by the sharp
reduction of tuition fees to attract prospective trainees
leading to lowered training hours and inadequate pay for professional
instructors thus resorting to employ incompetent ones to fill
the gap which in turn has resulted in producing computer illiterates.
Supply of poor and or deficient IT products is another problem
area that institutions and individual users alike lament about.
It is
our conviction that it is high time that IT companies in Ethiopia
came closer together to assess these negative trends and map
out future directions for the development of the sector in
an atmosphere of healthy competition
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