General Electric (GE) has introduced a robotics skills development programme for high school students in South Africa.
In partnership with Digicate, 600 school children from 30 schools across five provinces will take part in the course, titled "Intro to Mechatronics, powered by GE Africa".
The training will take place online, but each school child will receive a physical robotics kit with which they will have to build a moving rover.
Upon completion of the online training and physical robot building, they will need to upload a video of their fully assembled and movable rover to a Web site. Judges will shortlist entries to the best 30 based on creativity, rover movability and unique interpretation and implementation of recyclable materials.
These top 30 participants will be invited to a one-day classroom training session in mechatronics and 3D printing to help advance their rover designs.
In October, a finale event will be held and the top 30 students will present their rovers to a panel of judges from GE Africa and its partners. From here, three winners will be chosen.
GE says it especially wants to focus on training young women in this programme, "ensuring this contribution to economic development is inclusive, placing women alongside men at the forefront of innovation and therefore economic development and growth".
Patricia Obozuwa, GE Africa director for communications and public affairs, says: "We hope that by empowering these young students with valuable skills, we are able to help shape them into well-rounded individuals who will someday invent things that can change the African continent for good."
Other skills development programmes created by GE in Africa include Garages, an advanced manufacturing training initiative which is running in Lagos, Nigeria. The company says Garages will soon to be launched in other countries.
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