NGO to offer ICT skills in 23 districts

59 trainers over the weekend graduated from a programme run by Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT), an international organisation that creates educational and economic opportunities by offering skills on the use of ICT. The trainers will be deployed to 23 districts across the country to build the capacities of their peers through training and coaching in technology and entrepreneurial skills. The trainers are recruited under the DOT internship programme which offers an opportunity to young graduates to enter the job market with practical skills in technology and business. DOT’s Communications Officer, Grace Mugabekazi, stated that the interns have been undergoing a one-month intensive training of trainers programme dubbed, ‘The Reach Up’. “The Reach Up is DOT’s economic programme that trains and coaches the community in essential ICT, business, and life skills. It provides participants with tools and capabilities to help them advance their economic status by building successful, sustainable livelihoods,” she explained. She added that under a new partnership with the MasterCard Foundation, DOT Rwanda plans to expand the Reach Up programme. 180 interns will be deployed to train 35,000 young people in a period of three years thus contributing to the rural economic transformation and human capacity development. Over 2,500 community beneficiaries (youth and women), and 112 interns have profited from DOT’s training and coaching in ICT and entrepreneurship skills, some of whom have started up their own businesses. A graduate at the National University of Rwanda, Clement Kabiligi, 22, one of the interns and trainers, said he was deployed to Gicumbi District where he will train members of the community for a period of nine months. Ends