Monday, 11 May 2009 13:03

HP has been finding out from three NGOs in Africa what progress they have made with GET-IT training within their organisations. The NGOs are quite different, but they are all focused on providing effective education for students and unemployed young people.
 
The third of our three interviews is with Elom Chukwuma from the Centre for Skills Development and Training (CENSIRT) in Alakaliki, in the Ebonyi State of Nigeria. CENSIRT focuses on the development of programmes that address problems of poverty, mainly in the communities of Ebonyi State. The NGO is involved in entrepreneurship skills development for young people and also small industry programmes.

CENSIRT was selected as a GET-IT training centre by HP in 2008. Six trainers from CENSIRT attended a T-Tools guidance course that took place in Alakaliki in September 2008 and CENSIRT received the HP technology package in November 2008.

As a follow up to the launch of the GET-IT programme, an awareness workshop on the promotion of business through IT for young entrepreneurs in Ebonyi State was held in December. Since the launch, CENSIRT has trained approximately 80 students.

Elom Chukwuma is Board Secretary of CENSIRT and this is what he had to say:

Q: Can you give a brief explanation of the services you provide and the community and area where you are based?
EC: CENSIRT is a centre for Small Industry Research and Training. We provide ICT programmes, skills acquisition and training for prospective employment. We also assist with entrepreneurship development training, small industry research and energy and community programmes.

Our main goal is sustainable development. The area around us has lots of young people and our programme targets the youth. There is a lot of unemployment and economic depreciation - 80% of the population are illiterate farmers. So many people are looking for opportunities to go to university. People want to go to school where they can receive practical training because they know that government jobs are insufficient. People want to find employment and therefore they want to train on programmes that will help them find that employment.

Q: How many students have you registered (past or present) to use GET-IT in your centre and what type of educational or employment background do they have?
EC: The GET-IT training programme was officially launched on 25 November 2008. To date, we have registered 135 students - graduates, under graduates, secondary school leavers and secondary school final year students. In Nigeria there is also the National Youth Service, which is a one-year national service programme in Nigeria and we have lots of those young graduates looking for opportunities to find employment after completing their service year. Many of them are training on HP GET-IT at CENSIRT.

We also provide GET-IT training to young entrepreneurs. They are interested in running small businesses and have their businesses promoted on the web.

Q: How much has the provision of GET-IT in your centre helped to create awareness of the need for greater knowledge of IT and business in your area? To what extent has it provided benefits?
EC: As the programme was launched just a few months ago, it is still relatively new. We have had a lot of interest from young people and students. They appreciate that the benefits lie in the areas of business knowledge, using IT, record-keeping in business, information management, information tracking in business, website management and design.

We have, however, had some problems. After our launch so many people requested training and we could not provide enough equipment. We have nine laptops for this training and we have to limit our class size to 20. Our numbers are getting higher and we need more equipment. Because the students are trained for free, it is an additional cost to us.

The unemployed trainees need support and sustenance. Our Education 11 Centre damaged on transit and is not in use. The Trainers Tablet PC is also giving trouble. We urgently need solutions to these problems so that training can continue without hitches.  The cost of soft boards is high, as is the cost of access to the internet. The problems that we are facing are challenging.

Q: Have you incorporated our GET-IT City technology into your training capabilities? Do you think this is a good approach? What do you think could be added / deleted? What feedback have you received from your students who have used it?  
EC: We have incorporated GET-IT City and we have encouraged students to register with GET-IT and sign in with the GET-IT City book so that they can start meeting friends. It is a good approach. Some students are already in contact with others and are discussing issues.

For now, I think that nothing needs to be deleted. We’d like to be able to add free internet services for those at a local level. Mobile phones, unfortunately, are not common but computers can help students to reach friends. GET-IT City definitely helps to bring people together and, once that happens, business progresses. We are very enthusiastic about it.

Q: What examples can you provide of how GET-IT City has helped the students in your centre with their educational / business training? What examples of best practice within GET-IT City can you highlight and why?
EC: As GET-IT City is still so new, the best example I can give is that, at the moment, students are contacting their friends. This is a good start.

Q: What examples can you provide of how GET-IT has helped the students in your centre find work or set up a business?
EC: As we have only been operating the GET-IT training since November last year, it’s probably too early to say. We are focusing on promoting the programme and getting acceptance from young people of all ages. People using the GET-IT programme work in different places and we try to visit them. We have been talking to people who received alternative training in our centre before (ie CENSIRT past students) and we are trying to bring them back to our centre to use the HP programmes. That way, we know that can go back and apply their knowledge to their business.


Questions for Okunowo Olugbenga (still training)
Q: How long have you been undertaking the GET-IT training and what are your experiences so far?
OO: I have been undertaking the GET-IT training for about two weeks now and the experiences has been worthwhile. I had been perusing the Microsoft Outlook 2007 programme before the training and did not realise all of the many things that can be achieved with it until I had undertaken some training. Also, I had always thought that the HTML and Dreamweaver are the only web-management tools until my exposure to the kompozer through the GET-IT training.
 
Q: Have you used the GET-IT City technology and, if so, what do you think of it? How useful is it? How much benefit do you think it can provide? Do you think it needs to be changed at all and, if so, in what way?
OO: I have actually used the GET-IT City training technology on one or two occasions and I want to assure you that it’s a very good tool and a welcome development. It’s very useful, more especially for linking up with friends and partners and for exchanging ideas. I don’t think there is need for it to be changed for now, but it can be improved upon. For example, it should be a real city for friends to access entrepreneurial projects, instead of just interaction.

Questions for Egba Mary Ogba (who has completed the training)
Q: How effective and useful was the GET-IT training to you and how much has it helped you with setting up your own business or finding work?
EMO: I work as the Office Secretary at the Ebonyi State UNIDO projects office. The GET-IT training I received was very useful to me. I applied the knowledge I acquired to my office skills and it helped make my work more effective and efficient. Now my colleagues and friends want to do the same training. It has also added value because my boss and I now have greater responsibility and recognition.

I have really benefitted from this training. Time is money and the technology helps to save time. Now I can type one letter and send it to many people in just five minutes. The training has helped me to fix appointments with partners in far away places, to agree on times and venues and to set reminders. It has also helped me to create entrepreneurship skills which I would need to be self-employed or to excel as an employee.
 
The GET-IT training showed me how it helps an entrepreneur to acquire knowledge so that he can improve his business. For instance:
 
Operations and management: Within this area, I learned how to schedule appointments with business partners worldwide, to make contacts and set reminders. My boss is now relieved of that stress.
Finance: Through the training I have now found that, with the use of technology and GET-IT software, handling financial documents is very easy and fast. Everything concerning financial documents such as invoices and receipts, can be handled with a PC and not manually in order to get an accurate financial position of the business (profit and loss) at the end of the accounting period. Our office accounts are no longer in arrears.
Marketing: We can now do our marketing through a website. An entrepreneur sits at one place and makes his sales. His revenue goes directly into his account without any stress. My office activities are placed on the web and I am able to update them as and when I need to.

Did you use the GET-IT City training technology at all? If so what did you think of it? How useful is it? How much benefit do you think it can provide? Do you think it needs to be changed at all and, if so, in what way?
EMO: Yes, I use the GET-IT City Training technology and I really appreciate the efforts of those who brought the idea of Graduate Entrepreneurship Training through Information Technologies. I love working with it. It has brought me face-to-face with my old friends and we can easily exchange ideas as young entrepreneurs.

It should not be changed but it should be made more real. There should be result-oriented entrepreneurial programmes with strong goals to be achieved so that users can benefit and improve their businesses instead of being within an ordinary friendly forum. Also GET-IT training for places where there is no centre should be made to become more real - not just figuratively.


Finally, for Elom…
What advice would you offer to any NGOs who have only recently started to offer GET-IT programmes?
From our experience, the advice we would give is to keep students on track. We have discovered that GET-IT requires training and retraining. When students are trained and they go to set up their own businesses, they need to come back after some time to refresh their knowledge. We have a network of participants and they should be able to follow up with others. Many of their business-related problems require counseling and advice. This could be available online, as an online advice forum for centres offering GET-IT.
 
Any centre wanting to provide GET-IT training should be ready to absorb additional expenses. It does require some sacrifice and input. It would be better to integrate GET-IT training into a core programme and to develop an additional short course which provides an introduction to HP for students not mainly admitted for HP. Such a course would give students some background knowledge of HP, which would make it easier for them to register.

Finally, I think it would be good if the GET-IT training equipment could be delivered before ‘training the trainers’ starts. It makes their training all the more easy and effective (and qualified) if they can familiarise themselves with the equipment first.  

Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria