Africa digital media students have been urged to study hard so as to acquire skills that will help them transform the country’s digital media industry. The Ministry for Youth and ICT, Jean Philbert Nsengimana, who was on Monday presenting to the students and the school partners the award Rwanda won from the International Telecommunication Union, lauded Africa Digital Multimedia Academy (ADMA) for its outstanding effort in implementing the initiatives that seek to harness the ICT development. The minister said digital media production is still at a minimal level in Rwanda challenging the students to play a major role in improving it by developing skills to help Rwandans get better digital content. “You are lucky to have access to this cutting-edge technology. You should not wait for government to give you jobs; you should instead create jobs for others because this industry still has many untapped opportunities and the skills you are getting here will help you compete even at the international level,” he said. The State Minister in charge of Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Albert Nsengiyumva, emphasised that given the investment that the government put in this project, it will be a shame if students graduate and wait for government employment. Scope of the academyADMA has been implemented under the Workforce Development Authority (WDA). It offers skills that are at the international level with trainers from Hollywood and other digital media experts. The Director-General of WDA, Jerome Gasana, said they are investing much in the school since they are not targeting the basic skills but the highest ones. “We are offering training in six phases and this is very high because even cinema experts from America have most of them done only three phases,” he said. He added that the first cinema production would come out in 2015. Jean Pierre Birutakwinginga, one of the students, said the school is offering enough skills that are useful and they are ready to use them to improve the film industry in Rwanda and beyond.ADM opened its doors to students in 2012. It was run by WDA in partnership with the Pixel Corps Ltd. The academy, which has an enrolment of 40 students, offers skills in quality video and film production, basic production skills such as computer graphics, editing, audio lighting, motion tracking, Photoshop and 3D modelling.More than 280 projects from 64 countries participated in the International Telecommunication Union contest and ADMA emerged the best in the media category.
