British based SkillsTrain, Europe’s largest provider of IT training, has helped over thirty South African school children take part in live internet training link-up to give them their first ever opportunity to experience IT technologies that school children across Europe take for granted.
SkillsTrain, of Collingdon Street, Luton, England, offered underprivileged school children in up to a dozen schools in South Africa the chance to have virtual access, via a live internet link, to tools such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint to present their classroom projects, part of SkillsTrain’
The first live internet link-up from Luton to Mount Currie in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa enabled two classes of 13 – 15 year olds in St. Patrick’s College in Kokstad to be taught IT techniques totally remotely, from an office in Collingdon Street, Luton.
SkillsTrain principal, Myra Smallman, who hosted the live link said
“When I visited South African with my son’s rugby team I was shocked at how little there is for children to do and how few opportunities they have to even go near a computer. Using a white board and live internet link, we are able to project our software into their classroom so that they could be taught how they could present a recent project using Excel, PowerPoint and Word, programmes that are very familiar to most British children”.
Over thirty children aged 13 – 16 benefited from the morning’s remote IT training, taking their diary project `A Week in the Life Of’ and presenting it using Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
During session the South African students were set a new project, based around the Rugby Tri Nations, in which they will be taught how to use internet research and presentation methods to discover the history of the event and information about the teams taking part.
Myra Smallman continued “The children were very excited. They were a little shy at first, but it was amazing how quickly they took to the microphones to communicate with me back in the UK. They also loved using the Whiteboard, a common site in a UK classroom but quite rare in South African schools.
I’m very hopeful that the inspiration SkillsTrain is giving these school children will filter down to other schools to encourage them to raise funds to invest in computer equipment. If we can get more of these children trained in IT technologies, we’re giving them a huge advantage in their lives, to go out and use IT in their future careers. It’s a vital lifeline for many of them”.
SkillsTrain plans to continue the Project Africa live internet training throughout 2008. The company will be pleased to hear from other schools in South Africa who have the basic computing equipment to host the live link up and to benefit from the virtual IT training.
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Further information from Mary Stuart-Miller, 01403 738844. m.stuart-miller@
