Developing new skills to help transform a nation

Fresh out of college, Benjamin John was facing a daunting task familiar to many recent graduates; “after I finished my studies, I was looking for a job,” he says.

So, when Benjamin found an opportunity to make himself more competitive in the national job market, he took it.

A country in transition

Papua New Guinea is renowned to be a country of spectacular biological diversity – but the nation hopes to soon be known for its thriving digital economy.

“Digital Economy is a key agenda of the [Papua New Guinea] government,” said Charles Punaha, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Information and Communications Technology Authority (NICTA), the agency responsible for the regulation and licensing of Information Communications Technology (ICT) in Papua New Guinea.

But this is not an easy task.

According to the latest available data, although 64 per cent of the population was covered by a 3G network in 2020, only 11 per cent of the population used the Internet in 2017. This, in part, is explained by poor internet connectivity in the home and a limited knowledge of technology, but mostly by the lack of basic digital literacy and skills.

To remedy this, the Papua New Guinea government recently launched a comprehensive plan to accelerate the nation’s digital transformation through new large-scale infrastructure projects and network upgrades.

They also joined ITU’s Digital Transformation Centres Initiative (DTC) to provide their citizens with the necessary digital skills to benefit from this enhanced connectivity and help open pathways for socio-economic development – and build a thriving job market for young people like Benjamin.

Time to train

ITU’s Digital Transformation Centres Initiative, launched in September 2019 in partnership with Cisco, is a global network of training centres through which people can develop basic and intermediate digital skills. The initiative aims to help build an inclusive digital society by ensuring that lack of knowledge and skills is not a barrier to participation in the digital economy.

All participants of the DTC initiative around the world, have access to basic and intermediate CISCO training content on a range of topics from IoT to cybersecurity, and receive an internationally recognized certificate on completion of the training.

The DTC programme in Papua New Guinea builds on ITU’s support to accelerate the country’s digital transformation journey by scaling up digital skills at the national level and support bridging the digital divide.

In December 2020, ITU’s implementing partner in the country, the Papua New Guinea University of Technology (PNGUoT), started rolling out its training plan developed through the Digital Transformation Centres Initiative. Delivered by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) of Australia, trainees participate in Cisco’s “Get Connected” basic level digital skills training.

“At the beginning of the training, people didn’t know what a computer was, what the Internet is,” Benjamin John says. “Through this training, we learn how to bring this technology into our daily lives and transform our standard of living.”

As Benjamin already had some basic digital skills, his training focused on practical tools for the safe and productive use of technology, enhancing and building on his knowledge.

“I learned about online security and how to manage and protect my email. Before joining the DTC, my online accounts were not protected and I used to blindly click on links on the Internet, but now I know better. I think the DTC has done a great job educating me in this respect,” Benjamin says.

Sharing the knowledge

“Together with the PNGUoT, we endeavour to ensure that the [DTC] programme does deliver on its primary objective of digital skills transfer that will enable more of our people to participate meaningfully in the digital economy,” said Charles Punaha.

And Benjamin is already hoping to do just that!

“When I went to the DTC training, I learned how to teach other people how to protect their email and website,” he says. “I want to pass my new technology skills and teaching my friends and my peer group who still need to learn what technology and the Internet is, to improve their way of living. ”

Thanks to his newly developed digital skills and certification, the training was transformational for Benjamin in a more personal way, too.

“After the DTC training, it motivated me to think of myself as an educated person – and made me feel more employable,” he says. “I thought, ‘I have to look for a job so it can change my life.’ Consequently, today, I’m currently working at MasterSystems Technologies Ltd.”