An Overview of the Eastern Cape eSkills Colab Training and Awareness Programmes

This paper covers an overview of Information Communication Technology (ICT) training drives currently being undertaken in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. ICT is both a driver and enabler of changing people’s lives. For example, it changes the way people communicate, study and do business. Mobile phones and internet are becoming more available even in the most under developed regions and the hardest to reach communities. While the use of these ICTs is creating a wealth of new opportunities, it may include risks created by other users who use ICTs in an unethical manner. Therefore there is a need to make people aware of the opportunities and dangers or risks that comes with the use of ICTs. This paper seeks to unveil the path that the Eastern Cape e-Skills CoLab (EC e-Skills CoLab) has taken to provide training, aligned towards the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), around the province. The CoLab has embarked on a number of training and awareness campaigns ranging from basic Computer Literacy, Cyber Security, Internet of Things (IoT) and Robotics. Training is provided for basic computer users (e.g. learners, teachers), sector users, ICT practitioners, and e-Leaders. Each of these user groups has its own training model that has targeted a specific focus. For example, learners are given training and workshops on both Cyber Awareness and Robotics, whereas ICT practitioners are provided with training ranging from Cyber Security to IoT. The aim of the paper is to present and share the overview of e-skills experiences on number of ICT training that the EC e-Skills CoLab has rolled out.