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Telecom
Outlook 2003
December
6, 2002
First women-oriented
ITU Internet training centre launched
GENEVA
-- ITU has announced that Makerere University in Kampala
(Uganda) has been chosen as the site for first women-oriented
facility established by the ITU Internet Training Centres
Initiative for Developing Countries (ITCI-DC). The ITCI-DC
is an initiative between ITU and the private sector
in which Cisco Systems Inc. is a key partner.
Makerere
is the oldest of 16 universities in Uganda, and its
multidisciplinary department of women and gender studies
(DWGS) in the faculty of social sciences is the first
of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa. With the support
recently obtained from the Carnegie Corporation and
the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD)
for ICT training and capacity-building, DWGS is setting
up a modern computer lab in a brand-new building. DWGS
is committed to integrating ICT in its curriculum delivery
methods.
Under
the ITCI-DC initiative, DWGS will hold gender-balanced
classes in Internet Protocol (IP) technology with the
aim of increasing the number of women in the ICT/internetworking
workforce. It will work to integrate the Cisco Networking
Academy curriculum into the general curriculum offered
by the department with particular attention given to
incorporating it into the gender and technology courses.
Bachelor and master level courses are being offered
in a laboratory with 25 computers.
The
Women's Studies Department will also team up with the
Institute of Computer Science at Makerere University
and other training institutions such as the Uganda Communications
Institute to form a strategy for greater participation
of women in ITCI-DC and other ICT initiatives.
The
ITCI aims to roll out a network of 50 Internet training
centres around the world by the end of 2003. The program
aims to train a minimum of 50 students per year at each
centre. While aiming for a ratio of 50:50, the program
endeavor to ensure that at least 30 percent of the recruits
will be women.
Contact:
Project Coordinator
ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT)
Tel: 41- 22- 730 - 5428
Email: manuel.zaragoza@itu.int
Web: www.itu.int
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