Airtel Partners With Unesco to Impart IT Training

Airtel said the three-year initiative, dubbed "Train My Generation: Gabon 5,000", is the first of its kind that Unesco has partnered with a private organisation in sub-Saharan Africa.

"It aims at offering a scientific and entrepreneurial training to 5,000 of people (aged 18 - 35 years) and high-school teachers in Gabon - through information and communication technology (ICT)," the company said in a statement.

The initiative will start with the establishment of 10 cyber-centres equipped with servers and computers at schools in Libreville, Port Gentil, Oyem, Franceville, Bitam and Lambarene.

In the first phase of the project, 5,000 young people, aged 18 to 35, will receive basic ICT training, which will also provide training in online teaching to 100 secondary education science teachers. The teachers will use their skills to provide online educational support to 15,000 secondary school students preparing their end of school exams, it said.

"Through this partnership, Airtel wishes to benefit from the expertise of one of the most important organisations of the United Nations System, Unesco, whose programmes in Africa contribute to the promotion of innovation based on knowledge technologies," Airtel Gabon Director-General Olivier Herve Njapoum said.