KAMPALA – The Uganda Business and Technical Examinations Board – UBTEB has applauded ISBAT University for fronting the teaching of ICT and multimedia skills, saying that ICT is one of the key drives of economic development today.
This was during the university’s maiden seminar held at the University City Campus located on Conrad Plaza Entebbe Road on February 12.
According to Prof. Dr. K.M. Mathew, the Vice-Chancellor, the seminar led by international experts and well-known employers in the country intends at creating opportunities for the attendees to interact with career experts and be able to explore employment and entrepreneurship opportunities available in ICT Software Engineering and Multimedia/Graphics industry.
Speaking at the event, Dr. Nahamya K. Wilfred, UBTEB, deputy executive secretary, said that as the country grapples with high unemployment among the youths, this seminar is timely to give information on career prospects in the fields of ICT and multimedia.
“This will equip them with relevant and employable skills for software development and ICT support services. The graduates from ISBAT University have been able to develop essential soft wares that can support critical sectors like health, tourism, telecommunications, banking etc. With the recent Covid19 pandemic effects on education, it has become more vivid that as a country we need to embrace ICT to support sustainable development,” he said.
Nahamya said that the seminar has acted as a gate pass to making right career choices to quality education.
“As the Board, we applaud ISBAT University on this initiative. This will go a long way in enhancing dialogue while creating avenues for making right career choices from the start. Career guidance and counselling is very critical in raising critical human resources that are critical for national development.”
“UBTEB is proud to be associated with ISBAT University in championing the call for the development of competent graduates in the field of ICT Software Engineering and Multimedia/Graphics. The Board, therefore, congratulates ISBAT University on launching the awareness campaign to promote skills-based courses examined and awarded by UBTEB. We are confident of the University capacity to equip students with the most necessary skills in ICT, Multimedia programmes.”
The testimonies of the Alumni of ISBAT University, UBTEB said is a manifestation of the impact of pursuing the right careers that make a contribution towards socio-economic development.
Nahamya said that as educationists, it is their duty to ensure that they develop academic programmes that address the socio-economic issues of societies and a nation as a whole.
“As a country, we are in an era of addressing critical skills that are in short supply like Technicians for oil and gas. With combined efforts, as a country, we shall be able to address this challenge through appropriate education that inculcates the culture of innovation and value addition among the graduates.”
He encouraged the attendees to share the information they have obtained here.
He said that they [UBTEB] shall continue to partner with the accredited education and training institutions in ensuring quality assessment for competitive and productive graduates who contribute towards social-economic transformation and national development.
Prof. Mathew revealed that the university is now focusing on hybrid learning.
“We are the champions in introducing IT and we have learned from the last two years of lockdown that blended learning is the modern way to go,” he said, adding, “The learning of coming to class sitting from morning to evening has gone.”
“Now the students, even those working classes can also study by this blended learning methods.”
However, the VC decried the high cost of internet bundles which has remained a big challenge to most students.
“The data is the most challenging system. However, we have requested the service providers and the concerned ministry to consider this case.”