Claudette Irere, the Minister of State in charge of ICT and TVET, on Monday, January 24, laid a foundation stone to kick-start the construction of a new department of mechatronics at the Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre (IPRC Tumba) located in Rulindo District.

The facility will be built with support from the French government at a cost of approximately Rwf8.5 billion.

She was accompanied for the event by Arthur Germond, the country director of the French Development Agency (AFD), through which the construction project will be funded.

The new department was pledged by the French President Emmanuel Macron during his visit to Rwanda in May last year during which he paid a visit to the school. 

As an interdisciplinary department, mechatronics combines mechanics, electronics, computing, automation and control systems.

According to officials, the whole project will cost more than Rwf8.5 billion, including a French language learning center and a library. Construction works will cost Rwf4 billion.

"The new department will add more training courses to ones we offer today. The building will be ready within six months and we hope to start receiving students by December, and the department will enable us to have students who come out with useful skills,” Irere said.

"France’s support goes well beyond monetary aid. They also provide knowledge and expertise through linking us with their schools and trainers.”

She added that the new department falls in line with the government targets in regard to the development of TVET education.

The new department will start with 50 students, and it will have 300 students in the next three years.

Germond, who represented the French Ambassador to Rwanda, said that the project was "another sign of the normalisation of the relationship between the two countries."

"When the French President came here last year as part of his official visit to Rwanda, he really wanted to meet the Rwandan youth and this is where he met with students from the different IPRCs across the country," he said on Monday.

He added: "So, for us this project is very important because we're supporting the construction of a mechatronics department. But beyond the IPRC Tumba, we are working with four TVET schools in Rulindo District to make sure that they get employable skills.”

The new mechatronics department will be made of seven workshops, namely mechanical, automation, pneumatics and hydraulics, manufacturing, industrial domestic electrical, electronics and computing.

According to an official from IPRC Tumba, the department "will increase the number of skilled mechatronics technicians for the labour market, especially modern and automated industries that are rising in Rwanda.”

Minister of State Claudette Irere said the new department falls in line with goverment targets regarding TVET development.