By Roux Van Zyl

A Multimillion rand initiative to boost education facilities at the provinces eight Further Education and Training Colleges is helping rural youth to play their part in the global information technology highway.
Last week a R10 million project which will bring computer-based education at these colleges on a par with their German counterparts, was launched in East London.
The programme is a public-private partnership between the government of the Eastern Cape and Lower Saxony in Germany, and Fujitsu Siemens.
The initiative in the province is similar to other projects that have been implemented in Germany, Russia, Siberia and Poland.
As part of the deal Fujitsu Siemens will deliver servers, some computers and other hardware solutions to the various colleges.
This rollout will be supplemented by an award-winning E-Learning training programme developed by the Teaching Institute, said Dr Rolf Berndt of the Lower Saxony Teaching Institute.
“We started with the concept two years ago when we approached Fujitsu Siemens with the idea of building an education network in the Eastern Cape.
“Our biggest interest was to have better services at the colleges, similar to our teacher training institutes,” he said.
In the Lower Saxony, 60 percent of teacher training is done through E-Learning and all their internal communication is done via e-mail, Brendt added.
“We are virtually paperless.”
In addition to the computer infrastructure, two employees from each college will be invited to undergo an E-Learning training programme in Germany over two weeks.
Eastern Cape Premier, Nosimo Balindlela lauded the project that is being hailed as the first of its kind in the country. But she urged FET colleges to target employed youth and provide them with basic skills.
“We have not thought about how (Internet) connectivity can help our people and the economy. The FET colleges are here to help illiterate people access the economy.
“By connecting an FET, you connect a parent and unemployed youths with the rest of the world,” she said.
Jurgen Dachsel, a representative from Fujitsu Siemens, told the FET directors that computers were nothing but a “stupid machine”.
“It is about the person you communicate with through the computer that matters. And you need the Internet to run it.
The infrastructure is in place, it is now up to the FET colleges to do the rest,” he said.