In a bid to implement the  ''Diaspora Engagement in TVET Sector'' project, the academic staff members from the Department of  ICT at IPRC Ngoma are undergoing a month-long Training of Trainers (ToT ) from August 04, 2021. Claude - Richard Ndabarasa, from the Rwadan diaspora in The Netherlands  is offering this ToT scheduled to close  on August 28, 2021.

Ndabarasa is also the Chairperson of the Rwandan diaspora in The Netherlands. He  is training the academic staff in Azure Cloud Computing. He is an expert in Virtualisation & Systems Administration, Machine Learning & Big Data Analysis.

Seventeen staff members are  undergoing the ToT. These are mostly academic staff members from the department of ICT and  few  administrative ones  having some ICT-related duties in their job responsibilities. They are upgrading skills in cloud computing.

Cloud computing is the delivery of different computing services through the Internet. These services include servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics and intelligence.

Therefore cloud-based storage opens up the possibility of saving files to a remote database rather than keeping them on hard drive or local storage device.

Cloud computing offers different benefits in terms of cost, reliability, security, and productivity.

The  ToT in cloud computing   is part of the implementation of the ''Diaspora Engagement in TVET Sector'' project. This project brings on board skilled Rwandans residing in Europe to transfer their skills, knowledge and technologies and provide support to the selected innovative projects within the Integrated Polytechnic Regional Colleges (IPRCs).

 Rwanda Polytechnic (RP) in partnership with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) established a sustainable collaboration that attracted and engaged Rwandans living abroad with distinctive skills to foster training focused on practical, pedagogical and entrepreneurial skills in TVET sector.

IOM is an organisation with  the mandate of providing services and advice concerning migration to the governments and migrants. This organisation  entered into agreement with RP  to promote TVET sector.

The  IPRC Ngoma Deputy Principal in charge of Academics and Training Marie Leonce Murebwayire commended the move to engage  the diaspora in advancing TVET.

''We are grateful to IOM, which in partnership with RP and the Government of Rwanda, is engaging the Rwandan diaspora experts in a skills exchange program with RP trainers, in line with the advancement of technical education and vocational training,''   She said.  

Concerning the training of trainers being offered by the Diaspora expert Ndabarasa,  Murebwayire said : '' the ToT  is significant and relevant  as continuous learning is very important for the academic staff  in ICT so that they can keep up with emerging technologies.''

The head of ICT Department Jean Paul Niyibizi said the ToT in Azure Cloud Computing will equip the  academic staff with knowledge and skills they can use in making their contributions in future curriculum reviews. He added that the training is extremely beneficial for trainers and students as the skills acquired are relevant to labor market realities and constant change in technologies.    

As for the instructor in Information Technology Jean Bosco Twagirayezu, he said that he is confident in his expectations that  practical skills acquired  will not only be transferred to the students but also will be used to improve teaching and learning activities because cloud computing has a lot of advantages.

 The diaspora professionals with expertise in different areas were placed in different IPRCs basing  on the relevance of their areas of expertise to the academic programs offered by each IPRC. Apart from offering ToTs at IPRCs, they were  assigned to follow up the innovative projects  for the technical improvement or business improvement.