The African continent, in spite of its rapidly growing population, has quite few students of tertiary education. On average only 6% of the African youth has access to higher education, while in OECD it’s about 80%. The rates look no better for disciplines like science and technology. In countries like Namibia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania there is one qualified engineer per 6000 people. In China, for instance, the ratio is 1:200. Meanwhile, as many African economies have entered into a phase of fast development, their labour market shows more and more demand for a qualified workforce, especially in the field of technology. Those two factors combined contributed to creation of a large gap between what the employers need and what they can get.
Where it began…
Transfer Multisort Elektronik is a global distributor of electronic components located in Lodz, Poland. Over a quarter of century of experience on international market enriched by watchfulness to its changes and needs led to a launch of a unique initiative that aims to promote and implement technological knowledge, where it is most needed. TME Education was founded in 2016 as a response to lack of proper learning materials and know-how vital to raising up a generation of qualified engineers. Since its foundation, the programme encompassed Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Morocco, Egypt, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, South Africa and India, and is constantly developing new means to introduce its solutions in other countries. The project’s aim is not only to provide resources as such but most of all, to recognize the needs of the communities in which it is implemented. That is why the core value of the programme’s activity is cooperation.
Let’s do it together!
The first pillar of TME Education’s philosophy is forming close and long-lasting relationships with schools and other educational institutions. Apart from furnishing labs with specialized equipment, the project also offers further assistance, workshops for students and training for teachers. The goal is not to provide tools per se but to co-create quality education and bring up a new generation of the electronics specialist. The project aims to engage young technology enthusiasts in changing the reality around them by developing their innate capacities, talents and realizing their ideas. For this reason it was necessary to learn about them and their communities first. That’s why another substantial aspect of the program’s activity was establishing the role of an ambassador.
A teacher – a changemaker.
The ambassador is a young and proactive electronics enthusiast, originating from the local community and genuinely knowing its reality. Such person is not only the project’s representative but also a mentor and teacher to the students. TME Education Ambassadors have already conducted successful training in several schools and other educational institutions. In the first half of 2018 only, the programme’s representatives trained students in 12 different units. All the events gathered highly positive feedback both from teachers and participants. A week training in Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (Tanzania), for instance, received warm reception and encouraged the students to continue their experience with Arduino programming. The uniqueness of those workshops was not only credit of inspirational and motivational spirit of the lecturers but also due to TME Education’s self-designed kits.
