By Mesay Tilahun
The EASTRIP Strategic Investment Plan (SIP) of the Regional Flagship TVET Institutes at Dire Dawa is expected to support the institute to become financially sustainable by increasing income generation and to attract more investments.
In this regard, Dire Dawa Polytechnic College designed a project titled: “ICT Skills & TVET Centre of Excellence Development for Youth Employment & the New Economy Transformation Project” as part of the Skills Initiative for Africa (SIFA), an initiative of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) supported by Germany Development Bank (KFW).
The existence of EASTRIP Project was one of the factors that contributed to the institute winning the project. The Financing Agreement has already been signed and Project Implementation has been approved.
The aim of the project is to address sustainable socio-economic development challenges of Ethiopian and African countries through establishing an African Centre of Excellence in Information Communication Technology/ICT and Telecommunication with a project development objective of increasing access and improving quality and relevance of ICT TVET & Skills Training programmes.
The components of the project are (1) Procurement of training equipment; (2) Construction of learning infrastructure; (3) Training of trainers; (4) Design demand-driven relevant curricula; and (5) Provide high quality skills development /Learner scholarships.
Since the EASTRIP priority area for the College is railway transport which includes Railway Engineering Technology, Railway Transport Operation, Railway Passenger Services, Railway Rolling Stock Technology, Metal Engineering Technology & Electro Mechanics Technology, the implementation of the SIFA project will be a complementary for the realization of EASTRIP objectives.
The Writer is the EASTRIP Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist at Dire Dawa Polytechnic College.
