On Wednesday May 20th, 2020, ICDL Africa held it’s first virtual Regional Meeting with all its representatives in Africa. This was due to the restricted movement occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss about the regional market performance, share the plans each market has during the COVID-19 period and learn from each other especially those who have managed to maintain continuity at some ATCs, share ideas, challenges and strategies to overcome them.
In his opening remarks, Etinick Mutinda, the Strategic Advisor ICDL Africa started by giving an overview of the changes the pandemic has caused highlighting that it is a time people came up with creative ways of making sure the ICDL activities could go on despite the challenging time we are in. He emphasised that despite the challenges, some solutions have been put in place to keep operations active and running.
ICDL Africa General Manager, Solange Umulisa talked of how the year 2020 started in a very promising way with many projects that were in the pipeline. She mentioned that despite the COVID-19 challenges, many solutions have been created and put in place to support training and certification continuity across Africa. Some of them are the Skillsbox e-Books & Remote Invigilation platforms that were introduced and the feedback from the ATCs is positive.
She mentioned that a new market was identified in the first quarter of 2020 and ICDL has a representative in Ethiopia.
Solange talked about the Tetfund project in Nigeria, the endorsements that ICDL has received in many Institutions in the region including the Central Bank of Rwanda, the Tanzania Institute of Bankers, Benin and Guinea Conakry Government and Higher Learning Institutions ministry as well as different projects in the pipeline like the World Bank and Dell Technologies in Africa. She also mentioned that the AIMS Project in Rwanda had started and we are expecting the teachers to continue with training and certification using the available online options.
In his speech, Damien O’Sullivan, the ICDL Foundation CEO acknowledged the work being done by ICDL Africa and its growth in general. He reiterated that individual countries have shown great willingness to improve the digital skills of their workforce and the students. He said it is good that we all remain resilient and have solutions that would be of great use to society.
The ICDL Foundation had to embrace different ways of doing things with the aim of establishing the operational continuity, enable eLearning/certification continuity to support our partners.
Damien talked of the way institutions over the world are concerned about the many platforms and digital solutions being presented to them daily. It is very important to explain more to such institutions what platforms are good & needed for the different sectors like education when having discussion with them.
The CEO concluded by thanking the entire team appreciating the work each is doing in their regions and welcoming on board all the new members informing all that with the right team & Programmes in place ICDL implementation in Africa will reach far.
During the meeting, participants had a chance to hear the way different markets are planning to ensure operations during and even after the pandemic. There were presentations from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Specto, Francophone market and then Rwanda plus other territories.
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