Second batch of African women graduate from ECA CISCO internet networking

Abstract

19 African women from 19 francophone African countries graduated from the Cisco Internet Networking Technology Training Course on Thursday, 19 December 2002 .The graduation ceremony marked the culmination of a six-month project that has provided specialized Internet Networking training to the graduates. Most of the participants are employees of governments, NGOs and the private sector. The training course follows the established curriculum of the Cisco Networking Academy programme operating in more than 133 countries worldwide. It was a six-month residential course conducted in French by a team of certified Cisco trainers at the ECA. The course, which mainly aims at reversing the current trend of marginalization of African women's access to and use of new information and communication technologies, equips trainees with skills that enrich their professional careers and produce entrepreneurial opportunities in their countries as well. ECA has been promoting ICTs in Africa for more than two decades in the view to narrowing the information technology gap between Africa and the rest of the world and to speed the continent's entry into the information age.