As technology employers place greater emphasis on practical skills, five trainees from Mayotte visited Kigali-based OfficeHomeTechX Ltd. to see how classroom knowledge translates into workplace skills, technical services and potential careers. The visit, organized in collaboration with INES-Ruhengeri, was part of the trainees’ exploration of technology and technical training opportunities in Rwanda before they return to Mayotte for full-time work. ALSO READ: How career fairs help Kigali’s young job seekers enter the workforce It offered them direct exposure to the type of equipment, customer problems and technical decisions they could encounter in the workforce. Mayotte is an overseas French department made up of two islands in the southeastern part of the Comoros archipelago. At OfficeHomeTechX, the trainees explored computer maintenance and repair, electronics, networking, CCTV systems, software development, cloud infrastructure and technical support. They also saw how artificial intelligence is beginning to assist technical work. ALSO READ: What should universities know about the new HEC orders? Trainees watched technicians diagnose hardware problems, work with electronic components and use professional repair equipment to address real customer needs. One trainee said the experience changed how he viewed computer repair. “I learned that a computer is never truly dead,” he said. “You always have to check to see if it’s completely beyond repair, but it can often be fixed.” ALSO READ: How Rwanda’s startups are overcoming barriers to grow He pointed to the BIOS, a basic program that helps a computer start and communicate with its hardware, as one example of a component that can sometimes be repaired or reset to restore a machine. Mari Haoudhou, one of the trainees, said the visit showed how technical skills can contribute to wider economic development. “It’s really important to gain this kind of experience and learn how to use technology,” Haoudhou said. He said the group saw how a strong technology community can contribute to a city and country through innovation and locally developed solutions. For Adolphe Ibyikora, founder of OfficeHomeTechX, the visit reflects a larger challenge facing technology education: preparing students for the conditions they will encounter after graduation. “We’re just glad to be picked for such an experience because we were once in their shoes, as students too,” Ibyikora said. He said partnerships between academic institutions and technology companies can give students an understanding of workplace expectations before they enter the job market. “You could be the smartest at computer theory and you get to the job market and get shocked,” he said. “What we do here, we hope students get to know it before they graduate, but the thing is you have to be hungry for this knowledge.” The skills gap refers to the difference between what people learn through education and what employers expect them to be able to do at work. In technology, a graduate may understand computer systems or programming concepts but still need experience diagnosing faults, working with customers or delivering a solution under real-world conditions. For institutions preparing students for technology careers, such links can help make workforce readiness part of training before graduates begin looking for jobs.
