Back to the Computer Centre

I am back at the computer centre, teaching more life skills. Today's topic: "applying for a job" - which includes creating cover letters and resumes. I watch these young adults, high school educated people, struggle with double clicking a mouse. They ask questions like should they include primary school education on their resumes, or the fact that they may have been a prefect in the third grade. They add hobbies like "reading the bible" to their CVs; the girls accent their computer skills list in magenta; they set the background of the word document to rainbow coloured, because it looks pretty. These students have absolutely no business skills whatsoever, and more than halfway through their computer training course, their technical skill level with the applications is, for the most part, still abysmal.

Those of us involved with Softchoice Cares have been talking about what to do to help the centre, and unless there's quality instruction and ownership and commitment from the students selected to take part, I don't even know that it makes sense to continue providing equipment.

I wonder what secondary school in Uganda is like. These students seem programmed to follow a series of very specifics steps in a very specific order. There's not a whole lot of critical thinking in terms of, "would this concept apply in this scenario?" It is somewhat depressing, but we push through the lesson and when we're done, at least each student has their own simple resume. Office jobs in Uganda pay about five times higher than a typical Ugandan labourer job, so the work that this computer centre is doing is hugely important.

Behind the scenes, the techies in the group have managed to network all the computers, and image and configure the donated laptops we brought with us. Still no internet access though - maybe tomorrow.