IT Training Project it@ab Mozambique, April 2005 By CIUEM and Matrix Group Lda.

Objective
The objective of the project was to undertake a training program aiming at creating awareness and building technical capacity on Open Source Software in the Mozambican ICT market.

Organisational Structure
A project of this kind required strong organisation and coordination. The setting up the organ-isational structure both at management and operational levels was one of the major challenges.

Needs Assessment and Marketing
According to the project definitions, the target group would be consisting of IT managers, net-work and database administrators, as well as computer trainers coming from both the public and private sectors.

A survey was done covering the three regions of the country (North, Centre and South). The purpose of the survey was to assess the level of awareness and knowledge on OSS and there-fore the training needs among the targeted group. The results of the survey were used to define the type of training/workshop and the locations where the those activities should take place.
Having recognised the very huge demand on OSS training courses in the country, the adopted marketing strategy had to be restrictive rather than inclusive

From the institutions which we invited to send candidates, we received a total of 97 candidates, which went through a selection process, based on questionnaires and interviews. We selected the 40-best candidates to attend the course in Maputo and 10 to attend the workshop in Beira. Among them were teachers from Secondary Schools, resource persons for the so-called SchoolNet Project. During the course a journalist from a local newspaper was invited to inter-view the training participants.

Methodology
The methodology used for the training was based on classrooms sessions and workshops. Ad-ditionally, online learning materials including the CLE platform was used as well.

Sustainability
One of the major challenges of the project was the aspect of sustainability.
Taking into consideration the fact the country does not have financial resources to support simi-lar training programs, this project had to ensure from the beginning that the type of candidates to be selected were able not only to acquire the knowledge during the course, but also to con-tinue improving that knowledge beyond the current program. And most importantly, they should also be in the position to teach other people within their institutions.

According to the ICT Policy Commission, the Government of Mozambique is willing to adopt Open Source as standard platform for the country. This gives a strong hope, that the contribu-tion of this project may be of much higher value tomorrow than it is today.