W Cape unveils learnership initiative

By Siyabonga Africa, ITWeb junior journalist

Johannesburg, 17 Mar 2009

The Computer Olympiad and Centre for High-Performance Computing (CHPC) plan to roll-out a national high-performance learnership programme to disadvantaged communities.

A pilot programme is under way in the Western Cape, in conjunction with the region's Department of Education.

“We started with about 10 Grade 11 learners from previously-disadvantage communities in the Western Cape. We plan to increase it to about 20 learners next semester, and our target is to train about 30 learners this year and many more in the next five years,” says CHPC research scientist Dr Daniel Moeketsi.

The first phase of the pilot programme is being completed later this month in the Western Cape and will see the participating learners getting a basic introduction to computers. The programme is being managed and implemented by the CHPC. The Western Cape Department of Education identified the learners from previously-disadvantaged communities and assisted in gathering donations of used computers from the private sector.

Moeketsi says the CHPC, which falls under the CSIR's Meraka Institute, and the South African science foundation for youth will initiate a winter school programme in the Limpopo province this year. He adds any further expansion of the training initiative will depend on the availability of resources.

Skills for the future

Learners who take part in the course receive training in basic computer concepts, assembling and building computers from scratch, installing open source software, such as Ubuntu, and also get a basic introduction to the Linux operating system.

“Our main investment is on skills and capacity building, and the objective is to equip learners at an early age with the necessary computer skills. And ultimately we hope to inspire the future generation of high-performance computing (HPC) across all disciplines,” says Moeketsi.

Moeketsi is confident the programme will make a difference to learners. He says by inspiring interested youths, the CHPC can create an environment in which they will aspire to learn more and become confident users of computers.

“This is the first step towards growing a new generation of HPC users. The sooner they become acquainted with HPC, the better, as it offers researchers across many domains unprecedented computing power to address more and varying challenges of national and global importance faster and more effectively."