The Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) has completed the training for over 800 students in South Sudan under the East African-based Digital Innovation and Skills Hub (DISH).
The students were trained offline/online in Juba and Wau, with assistance from United States Agency for International Development (USAID), they had access to learning materials, computers, and the internet in physical learning centers in both areas. For learners in Wau, the courses were translated into Juba Arabic.
According to Peter Bidali, the Coordinator of the DISH Project in South Sudan, the certificate courses under DISH will enhance the employment possibilities of these youth. The breakdown of the student revealed that 431 students completed the certificate course under Business Administration, Peace Building – 386, while Primary School Teaching and ICT had 161 and 88 students respectively.
East Africa-based Digital Innovation and Skills Hub (DISH) is an e-learning platform developed to provide access to youth and women to develop employment skills. The DISH project which has partners in Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, and South Sudan targets vulnerable groups who have been denied the right to education and those who have difficulty accessing it.
The DISH courses bridge that gap by focusing on low-threshold e-learning courses, which can be used in online and offline digital learning on a variety of devices and settings. One essential aspect of DISH is that the courses were contextualized to reflect the realities of the learners.
Other DISH partners are East Africa University and Eastern College in Somalia; the Sudanese Organization for Research and Development (SORD) in Sudan; Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation (CEPO) in South Sudan; Mekelle University, Aksum University, Admas University, Addis Ababa University, and Adwa Pan-African University in Ethiopia; Kampala International University in Uganda; and the NGO Action Africa Help International. Tilburg University in the Netherlands assists with the partnership.
