Boost for trainees in GIZ-Strathmore backed digital skills training programme

Part of the graduates of the regional Digital Skills for an Innovating East African Industry programme that is being implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Inter-University Council of East Africa (IUCEA). [Kanyiri Wahito, Standard]

Eighty-four graduates who are part of the regional Digital Skills for an Innovating East African Industry programme have graduated at a joint graduation in seven of the eight East Africa Community (EAC) member States of Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Uganda.

The programme was not carried out in Somalia because it joined the EAC recently, when the programme had already started.

The 84 graduated with short-term digital skills courses after 10 days of training. The programme is being implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Inter-University Council of East Africa. The project focuses on building capacity, supporting innovation and entrepreneurship, and providing short-term training tailored to the digital transformation needs of the EAC partner States.

The training is conducted by WINS Global Consult in partnership with Black in Tech with certification by Strathmore University through its research and innovation centre iLabAfrica. “Through these series of training, our objective is to strengthen the employability of young people in the EAC partner States, but also improve the quality of delivery of digital skills training at the higher institutions and universities,” said Lillian Akot, Communications and Training Advisor, GIZ Tanzania.

Ms Akot was speaking on Friday during the graduation event of 18 of Kenya’s graduates at Kenya Technical Training Centre in Nairobi. The graduates received their certificates and shared their experiences and future aspirations.

Under the unemployed university graduates, the programme is designed to empower them with in-demand data analysis, visualisation and narrative generation skills to enhance their employability and career prospects.

At the end of the 10-day, in-person training and online, graduates are equipped with valuable data analysis skills, increased employability, and career opportunities for participants across the EAC. They undertook pieces of training in data analytics, visualisation and narrative courses to graduate.

Ms Akot said the programme also trains university staff to offer them practical and interactive training to strengthen digital skills to offer students a quality education experience catering to market-oriented employability and their innovativeness.

Between July and August 2024, the training brought together over 110 participants (nearly 50 per cent female) from across seven participating EAC countries.

This diverse group represented a mix of teaching staff (professors, lecturers, and teaching assistants) and non-teaching personnel (librarians, registrars, ICT officers, webmasters, quality assurance officers, and systems and network administrators) from more than 35 universities, with five or more institutions participating from each country.

“It helps the graduates to build market expansion strategies while using digital marketing tools among other e-commerce technologies to advertise and promote, content and experience, data and infrastructure, commerce and sales, customer relationship management and governance,” said Emmanuel Kweyu, deputy director at IlabAfrica.

He said Strathmore University was in charge of quality control in terms of the design and quality of the curriculum and certification process.

Kweyu said the programme is a path towards digitisation since the skills they are offering are highly in demand in Kenya and East Africa.

The third cohort training, which will start next week is designed to expose micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to current trends in marketing technology as a discipline.