The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in partnership with infoDev of the World Bank and Cisco Systems Inc., has launched a Cisco Internet Networking Technology Training Course for African Women at its Information Technology Centre for Africa (ITCA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The training course follows the established curriculum of the Cisco Networking Academy Program. The training course covers six months and 280 instructional hours and lead to independent certification as a Certified Networking Associate.

In this project, 20 to 25 African women are trained each year over a two-year period in innovative technology of Internet networking design, maintenance and use. Following their training it is anticipated that these women will return home to either high salaried employment or to establish SMEs (such as cyber cafés or telecentres or teleservices businesses) in the new economy e-business area. Information disseminated about these young women and their experience will lead other young women in Africa to enter high technology training and businesses.

Training of these young women, including training of some as trainers of others, will significantly increase the number of Africans skilled in this highly sought after area.

The activity addresses these issues:

• The digital divide: with the information age there is a growing digital divide both between developed and developing countries in access to and use of the new technologies which are tied to access to the knowledge economy. The digital divide also expresses itself in the unequal access of women and women to the new technologies. Within Africa, access to and use of the new technologies date has been predominantly male1. In order to avoid the further marginalisation of African women as a result of new technologies, demonstration projects are needed to put some African women in the forefront equipped with the skills that are needed in the network society and to serve as role models for other African girls and women to enter this new area.
  
  
• Shortage of African skilled in the new technologies. Although the numbers trained in this course can not make a significant dent in the numbers of trained persons needed in Africa, as the course will train trainers of others, it will have a multiplier effect.
  
  
• Countering the brain drain. African women will be trained in scarce skills that can produce high-income employment and enterpreneurship opportunities in their own countries. Measures will be built into the course and its follow up to try to ensure that those trained will remain in Africa.

The curriculum is comprised of:

Semester One

OSI model and industry standards
Network topologies
IP addressing, including subnet masks
Networking components
Basic network design

Semester Two

Beginning router configurations
Routed and routing protocols

Semester Three

Advanced router configurations
LAN switching theory and VLANs
Advanced LAN and LAN switched design
Novell IPX
Threaded case studies

Semester Four

WAN theory and Design
WAN technology, PPP, Frame Relay, ISDN
Network troubleshooting
National SCANS Skills
Threaded case studies