The digital era has changed the way people work in many parts of the world, Rwanda inclusive.

With flexibility and working in a safe and healthy environment gradually becoming the norm, co-working spaces have been attracting many businesses in the recent past.

Basically, co-working spaces are a shared location which provides a cost-effective workplace along with networking opportunities, high-tech facilities as well as offer support through mentorship programmes.

Agaciro training center, located in the suburbs of Kigali, Gasabo district in Kimihurura sector, is a similar initiative offering such solutions, run by the Umbrella for the vulnerable.

The center is, among other things, offering free office working space coupled with several facilities targeted mainly to ICT tech-startups that empower young people.

When The New Times visited the center, young tech-enthusiasts, entrepreneurs had broken off for lunch, which is served every day without paying a penny, and you could think that it is just another working space.

Some were playing table tennis, others like most would guess, playing video games, others in groups and of course the rest having lunch.

Joseph Semafara, Chief Executive at Solvit Africa, a pan-African Edu-tech company based in Kigali is among the common faces on the compound.

His company, according to Semafara, partnered with Umbrella for vulnerable in 2018, with a sole purpose of transforming tech enthusiasts into top-tier world tech professionals through the provision of internships and apprenticeship opportunities.

"When I came here, I was able to train around 25 people, but now every year I train 300 in three cohorts, that means, 100 per cohort for three months, because we need one month in between every cohort to prepare, select, interview the next group.” he said in an exclusive interview.

According to him, they have developed a curriculum that solves the issue of skills gap and shortages in Africa in the tech sector.

Step by step, he added, the company has managed to turn normal below average skilled students into professionals.

"We definitely train them from scratch, the stacks that the education system does not provide,” Semafara said.

International companies come to Rwanda and they need employees who are qualified on certain courses, despite the fact that schools can only afford to give the pre-requisites.

"Our Universities are doing a great job in giving the students a prerequisite of what they need, so when they come here we polish those skills and synchronize them to what the employers are looking for.”

"Things are moving smoothly, we see increasing demand, that is why I think the umbrella has a shot for giving us a chance. We need to answer this request,” he added.

As people who are grimming future employers, Semafara argues that there is a need of being ready for whoever knocks on the door.

Semafara shared similar sentiments with Kevine Bajeneza, founder and Chief Executive at Natcom training center, who also joined the Agaciro ICT center in 2020.

"We partner with umbrella for the vulnerable because they are focused on capacity building and empowering the community especially for women into what we mostly call digital economic transformation,” Bajeneza said.

The impact is very positive, she added.

"We are able to recruit more and more students from 500 to 1000 in a quarter. These students are able to go through different training sessions.”

According to Bajeneza, Natcom recruits different categories, ranging from high school graduates, TVETgraduates, those who come for industrial attachment skills, fresh varsity graduates as well as employed IT and non-IT staff who come for digital skills.

"There is a big gap in skills development today. The mismatch of the skills required and those possessed by our students is still huge.”

"What we do is that we train them, we empower them, so that they are able to expose their knowledge,” she said adding, "I would only suggest that our partners provide more support. We have seen the passion from this ecosystem. There is a big change. Graduates should not spend time while redundant. We need more centers like these to support other young people.”

For Keren Simbi Iyamuremye, 21 year-old student at Adventist University of Central Africa in the department of software engineering, during her training at Solvit, she learnt that with guidance and passion the sky is her only limit.

"In SolvIt, we improve our technical skills but also provide a medium to outsource us to different companies. In the center, I love how they teach us to improve our skills. Beyond that, we are also taught how to brand ourselves.”

For instance, Simbi said that she does UI/UX design, "but we are taught that this is not all I need. We are taught how to brand ourselves, like make CVs.”

"We had three months training, it's almost over, during that we learnt some soft skills, how to pitch our designs so everything was awesome. My biggest take home is that everyone has a special skill. No one is better than the other. We only need guidance and passion.”

Equally benefitting from the spaces funded by the Islamic development bank, is Creativity Lab, a IT-training firm that works with schools to support teachers to incorporate STEM in teaching and conduct after school STEM workshops for students in Programming, Engineering, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

"Umbrella for vulnerable helped us to grow. We increased the number we expanded the space for our materials and the teaching guides,” said Ildephonse Mungwarakarama, founder and Chief Executive of the firm.

"With our trainers we have reached 65 schools and 2600 students directly. We also want to empower teachers so that they increase our reach.”

Beyond that, he said, Umbrella brings visitors, investors, among other dignitaries, which visibility you can hardly get elsewhere.

A win for job creation

According to Ayoub Nsanzintwali, the legal representative for Umbrella for vulnerable, the center funded by the Islamic development bank is embarking on a journey to educate Rwandans in ICT related courses.

At the center, he said, leading local ICT training companies including SolvIT Africa, we have a creativity lab, we have Natcom, TechAffinity, and Leapr Labs are present.

"The main solution is self-employment. In today’s world, people need to create their own jobs, not necessarily relying on the government. This center is mainly bridging the gap of self-employment.”

"We provide space to the companies. We also offer a few more facilities, even the training is free of charge, according to an agreement we have with the companies working here.”

In this light, Nsanzintwali said, Rwanda is set to host more than nine countries from Africa in the coming months whose representatives will be assessing the works of the center and the plans to replicate the same initiative in their countries. The event will also be co-organized by the Islamic development bank.