Call for ICT career guidance
HIGH school students have called for an intensive Information, Communication and Technology career guidance to enable them to make informed decisions as they embark on a Government sponsored Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiative that seeks to equip learners with industry related skills that can make them compete with global talent.
In an interview with the Cool Lifestyle, People’s College student Ryan Mlambo (17) said students are in need of accurate information on the available ICT courses and career opportunities so that they make correct decisions early in their academic life.
“My understanding of ICT is that it is a huge global industry. The digital world is exciting to students yet our knowledge of what it offers is limited. The technological passion that is gripping students across the country is there for everyone to see. Tablets, laptops, android phones, blogs, whatsapp groups, Facebook pages, these are now everyday routines of most students. Long ago students had to finish the Ordinary Level first before they went for a basic computer literacy course.
“Personally I am inspired by our own Zimbabwean technoprenuers like Charles Chigoriwa of the Fundo Linker application, Thomas Tinashe Kujoka who developed an electronic version of the Highway code. We need an initiative that provides students with an opportunity to learn about careers in technology and connect with mentors in the field for inspiration. Students also need to be exposed to hands-on computer and technology work- shops where we can be engaged in a oneon-one mentoring and career guidance sessions,” he said
Graphic designing, photo editing, web designing, computer maintenance, cloud storage, networking, data recovery, coding and computer programming are some ICT courses that are being offered by local colleges. Harare Institute of Technology student Joel Sadomba who is studying Computer Science said students have to understand that ICT is an enabler for creativity, problem solving and employment creation for young people.
“I am inspired by the fact that technology makes life so easy than anything else. I got so attracted to technology when I discovered that it has power to change virtu- ally anything. I discovered that technology is everywhere and all modernism, developments, professions, economy and any other successful achievements can be explained in terms of technology.
“We should not just limit ourselves to using applications developed by foreigners. Let us develop our own applications which provide local solutions. My target is using ICT in healthy. Healthy informatics is my domain. I want to use ICT in aiding health facilities to be efficient and effective by creating a central national database that captures all the information about a particular individual, your health status, age, banking and academic profile. All the statistics should be available at the click of the button. This will aid in resource distri- bution,” he said.
Widluck Nyahwedengwe who recently graduated at the University of Zimbabwe explained the various computer-related courses students can choose from.
“Computer studies basically includes the study of use of computers in jobs and everyday life, it covers the generations, applicability and validity of computer use in the afore mentioned environments.
“Computer science is the study of how computers operate, that includes hardware and software, and it goes more into the programming of the computer system, repairs and architecture among other things. It is aimed at teaching people to know how to understand how computers work, to make computers work the way they want and also how to troubleshoot and repair them.
“Information Technologies are structural systems designed to manage the flow of information, the management there of and also the utilisation of such systems in companies , school, and any other institution. For example, the non-practical computer studies done in Colleges and High schools . They are not elaborate to anything besides the basic use of computers.
“Computer science is deeper and is studied in Universities like University of Zimbabwe, Midlands State University etc. While computer studies can be done in short courses in general colleges, with a short learning duration, computer science is intensive study that calls more time, a deeper study and more of practicals,” he said. ◆ Shepherd Chimururi Executive Director — Dzidzo Inhaka Audio Visual Learning; Mobile: +263 772 608 276; dzidzoinhaka@gmail.com www. dzidzoinhaka.co.zw