Bus-Based Cisco Networking Academy Programs give Students a new Route to Acquire IT Skills
August 3, 2006
By Jason Deign, News@Cisco
Getting a foundation in IT is becoming as easy as catching a bus for hundreds of people in remote areas of Egypt.
Communities across the country are benefiting from a program run by the Egyptian Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, in association with the Cisco Networking Academy® Program, to take basic computer training to the masses through a series of mobile IT clubs.
The Mobile Information Technology Club initiative is supported by the United Nations Development Programme and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Cooperazione Italiana program and currently features two caravans and two buses outfitted with PCs.
Each vehicle has a satellite link giving users access to e-mail and the Internet, originally intended to provide people in remote communities with training and awareness on the basics of computer, Internet and multimedia use, along with associated skills such as languages and Web design.
| " | Thanks to an agreement with Cisco Systems®, however, the mobile IT clubs can also now offer the basic foundation Networking Academy program course, Cisco IT Essentials I. " |
The five-week course presents an in-depth exposure to computer hardware and operating systems and helps students prepare for the Computing Technology Industry Association's CompTIA A+ certification.
Each mobile IT club has been made a local academy, with two instructors per vehicle operating under the auspices of the Egyptian Ministry of Communications & Information Technology's E-learning Competency Center, which is one of six regional Networking Academies in Cairo.
The caravans have 20 computers each and capacity for around 20 students, while the buses have 10 PCs apiece, with space for a student at each.
This equates to a potential 60 Cisco IT Essentials I-certified students every five weeks, a significant contribution to the skills base of disadvantaged communities in areas such as El Minya, Giza or Al-Ubor, where the mobile IT clubs are being introduced.
A pilot of the program from February to July 2005, before the mobile IT clubs had been granted local academy status, the two caravans managed to serve 16,000 visitors across six of Egypt's 27 governorates in 35 weeks.
During one two-week stint at a village called El-Rouda, in El Minya, one caravan received 1577 visitors, 701 of whom were women or girls.
The mobile IT clubs will target school students, youth groups and local communities in remote and isolated areas or those lacking in IT infrastructure.
Besides computers and a driver, coordinator, supervisor and instructors, each unit has data projectors, a power generator, air conditioning, a printer and scanner and Web cameras.
The mobile IT club initiative was created by the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology to complement the country's efforts to kick-start a more knowledge-based economy and, specifically, to enhance the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Egypt has around 2 million SMEs and their competitiveness in the global economy is expected to be closely linked to ICT skills.
To this end, the government has introduced an initiative called Family PC, in collaboration with Microsoft, Intel and Via Technologies, which allows Egyptians to purchase a computer for 1500 Egyptian pounds (about US$250) plus an EGP 50 ($9) down-payment.
In addition, the Ministry has created approximately 1000 IT clubs across the country, as well as the four mobile units.
There are plans to turn these IT clubs into local Networking Academies, although the scale of the task is immense. With two instructors per academy, at least 2000 new instructors would need to be trained to cover all the locations.
Besides the mobile IT clubs, other local academies in the country currently include Cairo University's Scientific Computation Center, four non-government organizations, three schools and a Trade Information Center that deals with up to 100 students a month.
Nevine El Kadi, area Networking Academy manager for North Africa and Levant, says: "We are currently evaluating the top 100 IT clubs, in batches of 10, to see which ones could be turned into local academies.
"However, there is definitely an appetite for IT skills tuition in Egypt. Our first regional academy managed to sign up 11 local academies in less than six months."
Yasser Elkady, Cisco director of operations for North Africa and Levant, adds: "The Egyptian government is laying down the infrastructure for Internet connectivity, which is why it wants to prepare people and give them the skills to operate in a connected world.
"The mobile IT clubs could ultimately help people sell their skills outside their immediate communities. And this is a project that can work in other countries in the region, such as Jordan and Lebanon, which have similar problems with Internet connectivity in remote areas."
Jason Deign is a freelance journalist located in Barcelona, Spain.
