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Wanted: Training participants for the first Regional LPIC-1 Training of Trainers

Wed, 08/09/2010 - 20:59 — ikua

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

First Regional Training of Trainers for Linux Professional Institute (LPI) Level 1 for East Africa (Code: LToT1)

Second Regional training of Trainers for Linux Professional Institute (LPI) Level 1 for Southern Africa (Code: LToT2)


DEADLINE OF APPLICATION:

22nd September 2010 for Eastern African participants

5th December 2010 for Southern African participants



Linux administration training of trainers

The Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) in cooperation with InWEnt Capacity Building International, Germany, invites to participate in a Linux administration Training of Trainers (LToT1) workshop in Nairobi, Kenya as well as in Johannesburg, South Africa.

This course prepares participants for Linux Professional Institute (LPI) certification Level 1 as well as to become Linux trainers in their own right. After the training, the trainers will sit for examination to be certified as Level 1 Linux professionals. LPI is a distribution and vendor-neutral standard for evaluating the competency of Linux professionals

Participants will receive intensive training on LPIC-1, and will also commit to book and sit the exams at the end of the training. They will also receive pedagogical training and how to effectively train others in the subject, as well as training materials that will be developed under the project.

The 1st Regional Training of Trainers in Nairobi, Kenya will take place from 1st - 12th November 2010 (following an online learning phase from 4-29 October). It is part of the ict@innovation programme which aims at building capacities for African small and medium ICT enterprises to do business with Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).

The 2nd regional training of trainers will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa and will take place between 14th and 25th February 2011, following an online e-learning phase between January 10, and February 4, 2011. The application deadline for the 2nd ToT is November 15, 2010.

We seek professionals and institutions, who have firm plans to make trainings on FOSS Certification a part of their regular business and/or teaching activities or upgrade existing certification efforts. Successful applicants will convincingly demonstrate how they plan to carry out at least three trainings on the subject in their own country during 2011-12, and make LPI Certification training a permanent part of their business and/or teaching activities in the future.

1st Regional ToT in Nairobi, Kenya

Venue: Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya

Timelines:

September 9-22, 2010 (application period)
September 24-30 (selection and notification of qualified applicants)
October 4-29 (on line learning phase)
October 31 (arrival of participants in Nairobi)
November 01-05; 8-12 (ToT LPI-1 proper)
November 13 (LPI community certification exams)
November 14 (departure of participants)

Applications are open for participants from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Ethiopia.

IMPORTANT:
EVERYBODY IS REQUESTED TO READ CAREFULLY AND UNDERSTAND FULLY THE CRITERIA, OBJECTIVES AND CONDITIONS PRIOR TO SUBMISSION OF THEIR APPLICATIONS FOR EVALUATION AND CONSIDERATION.

APPLICATION CRITERIA
Participants who will attend are to be determined on the following criteria:

  • Trainers and FOSS experts AFFILIATED with academic institutions, government agencies, small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), and non-government organizations (NGOs) as well as network and systems administrators and FOSS advocates
  • Minimum of 2 years of relevant experience in administering a Linux PC
  • Good command of English, including technical terms used in ICT
  • Residents/citizens from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Ethiopia.
  • Positioned in their organizations to facilitate the adoption of FOSS-based applications
  • Must have at least 1 year ICT training experience and the ability to train others after the course

Non-local applicants must possess a passport with at least 6 months validity period to allow overseas travel.


In particular, we encourage applications by candidates who are associated with organisations such as:

  • ICT training institution with IT programmes (public or private)
  • University/ higher Education Institution with IT programmes
  • FOSS association or group / ICT association
  • ICT SMEs with significant potential to further disseminate the knowledge provided in the trainings on a sustainable basis.


During the selection process, a high score will be given to institutions which will be able to embed the LPIC training into their regular curriculum of activities and services offered. These will be expected from the follow-up action plans they will be submitting as a requirement for application.

Though applications of institutions will be prioritized, individual FOSS trainers and experts are also eligible to apply.

Training Institutions are invited to designate one representative/trainer. The Institution is also asked to clearly signify their commitment to designate their representative/participant to train IT experts, other staff members/communities upon their return within three months. Organizations are ENCOURAGED to nominate and give preference (where appropriate) to FEMALE participants.


RESPONSIBILITIES OF PARTICIPANTS AND PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS

Participants and participating institutions are expected to:

  • Organise at least three FOSS Certification trainings of their own in their country during 2010-11
  • Integrate the LPIC course into their training portfolio or curriculum
  • Assist in the localization/enhancement of training materials, by updating those materials and adapting them to specific local conditions and requirements
  • Commit to book and sit the LPIC-1 exams at the end of the training. The training participants will cover their own LPI exam fees, which is 95 USD for each exam. There are two exams in LPIC-1
  • Cover their own travelling expenses. Travel grants may be available to successful non-local applicants on request and sufficient justification.

FOLLOW-UP PLAN
The programme provides monitoring after the Training of Trainers (through their institution) for a sustainable implementation of follow-up activities. This will be done to ensure that the training institutions actively engage in training activities that will have a multiplier effect in order to spread the LPI skills and certification in their regions or countries. Monitoring will be done by ict@innovation and all participating institutions will be required to facilitate this

COLLABORATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF E-LEARNING MATERIAL
The training materials will be developed by experts contracted by ict@innovation. This material will be available for the training of trainers, as well as in the future trainings that the trainers will engage in during their own roll out in their locations. The training participants will also contribute to the future development and updating of this material.

This material and materials of former LPI TOTs in stable format (mostly in a wiki) will be transferred to a Course Management System that is accessible by the public, and editable by LPI certified alumni of ict@innovation. This e-learning tool will also be used for a pre-training e-learning phase.

The e-learning phase will run for between 3 and 4 weeks. In this phase, learning participants will engage in selfstudy using the materials that will be developed by ict@innovation consultants. They will engage with expert LPI trainers who will guide them using various methods such as wikis, email, mailing lists, user groups on the ict@innovation portal, moodle etc. Your performance in this e-learning phase will be a selection criteria for the face-to-face training phase. This will assure that the participants

are of the level of quality to take the certification exam right after training with higher chances of passing.

ict@innovation will cover the following costs during the 2 weeks face-to-face training:

  • Meals and accommodation for non-local residents
  • Training course
  • Learning materials
  • Online infrastructure.

NB: No daily allowance will be paid.

Application procedure:

Option 1

Please fill the respective forms online and submit all the required details together with your CV/ institution details:

· Individuals: http://www.ict-innovation.fossfa.net/node/4696

· Institutions: http://www.ict-innovation.fossfa.net/node/4697


Option 2

Download, print and fill in the respective application forms as below

· Click here to download the Individuals application form

· Click here to download the Institutions application form

Send the filled forms together with your CV/institution details by email to ikua[at]fossfa.net and copy george[at]inwent.co.za

· or Submit the filled application forms by fax to +27(0)86 624 9181 (Download the application form as above, fill it in, and fax it to the number above).


Application Deadline is 22nd September 2010, if your permanent country of residence is Eastern Africa and until 15th November 2010, if your permanent country of residence is Southern Africa.

-------------------------------------------------
Background - Why become an LPIC trainer?
A major barrier against adoption and deployment of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in sub-Saharan Africa is the lack of human resources with FOSS skills. This programme aims to address the problem by qualifying trainers, so that these trainers in turn will be able to multiply their expertise for a self-sustaining development of FOSS human resources.
The training of trainers is offered to institutions with a strong commitment to introduce the knowledge of Linux to their staff members and communities. This should be done by implementing trainings by the LPI 1 certified representatives within three months after this programme. Monitoring and supervision will be provided by ict@innovation.
This action proposes an advanced training program on LPI Level 1 and prepares the participants for the LPI Level 1 certification exam. Trainers and FOSS experts will be enabled to obtain certification in Linux systems administration and to develop, adjust and enhance material, that prepares others for LPI certification.

The Linux Professionals Institute (LPI) community certification program is a non-distribution specific program that certifies the competency level of Linux practitioners. It has three levels.
For this training, information about the LPIC-1 (101 and 102 exams) is available at the LPI website. PLEASE CLICK THE LINK BELOW FOR THE LPI EXAM 101 AND 102 DETAILED OBJECTIVES: http://www.lpi.org/eng/certification/the_lpic_program/lpic_1


Background of ict@innovation - Creating Business and Learning Opportunities with Free and Open Source Software in Africa

The programme focuses on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) as a key technology to drive innovation, add local value and create sustainable and affordable ICT-solutions. ict@innovation aims to enhance regional networking and to strengthen consulting capacities of regional and national ICT associations and training institutions as well as of other change agents. Funding partners are the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA).

Pillar B – Fostering FOSS Certification

This pillar of the ict@innovation programme aims to help African SMEs involved in Open source Solutions development, implementation and training to improve the quality of their solutions offering through certification of their FOSS skills. The project partners have appreciated the importance and urgency of increasing the number of Linux systems administrators on the African continent so as to have a bigger impact on the uptake of FOSS on the continent.

To achieve this, the program will implement the following interventions:

  • Support the development of open content Linux Professional Institute Certification (LPI) training material.
  • Offer Training of Trainers to individuals in the participating countries, leading to the LPI exams for certification.
  • Support the trainers to deliver the LPI training and certification in their countries and institutions as a business model.

Join ict@innovation and become a community member!

We would like to ask you to become a member of the ict@innovation community by registering on the ict@innovation website and creating a profile, indicating your interests and skills in FOSS. This will enable you to contribute to the Website Fora and Wikis, to join in a knowledge exchange with other persons interested in FOSS and/or involved in the ict@innovation programme. Please register here: http://www.ict-innovation.fossfa.net/user/register

Comments

Wed, 15/09/2010 - 23:37 — Patrick Burasa (not verified)

Nice and important initiative. As Linux has always been central to FOSS, it is great to have linux certification of some sort. The material in a number of Linux certification programs can sometimes be underestimated, but they are really important to any Linux sysadm, even to anyone using linux in a professional setting. I am an RHCT & RHCE and it was worth the money. Unlike Redhat certifications, LPIC has an advantage of not solely endorsing and covering a specific distro. I however disagree with the demands being made to participants---that they must go multiply and preach LPI. It sounds like a commercial scheme designed to sell LPI training material and exams. To make it fair, it should be more sponsored (for participants. I am sure the organizers and trainers are fully sponsored). The irony is that when you arrange something with an intent to foster ICT businesses in Africa, I would like to see real African businesses sponsoring and organizing as opposed to African NGOs with free money from the west (in this case, BMZ--Germany). This counters the whole spirit of doing real business in Africa. My point is: as young African IT professionals, many of us end up competing, not with real businesses, but with NGOs backed by 'free' aid money from the west. Most of these ICT NGOs go to the extent of actually engaging in business activities (such as training, programing, sysadm for schools and hospitals, etc.). I believe that NGOs should be confined to advocacy or simply become consulting companies. The key phrase is "to do business", and not charity-like business activities. In a narrower context, this event will benefit many Africans and I hope many will get to participate.
Thu, 16/09/2010 - 16:50 — ikua

Thanks Patrick for your comments and sincere observations. I agree with you on some of the points that you have raised, and disagree with you on others.

You are right about LPI being neutral compared to RHCE. That is the main reason we chose to go with the LPI, so that we dont seem to promote only a particular distro. Once a person goes through LPI, he/she is able to use any Linux distro more easily as you learn all the file systems.

On the other hand, we are not in any way competing with African businesses. In fact our aim is to equip the same businesses to improve the quality of their services by being properly trained and certified. What we are looking at is multipliers who will go and train others, as a business, so that they can make money out of it. Our training also has a module on how to train others.

So the guys who will do the business and make money is the people that we train, when they go back to their institutions. Thats why we are insisting on them being able to show that they have plans to go and do just that, as well as the wherewithal.

As you can see from our model, we are not charging a single dime for the training. Yet we will take care of all the expenses that will be there. But we cant pay for an individual´s exams, as that should be something that goes to show that the person attending is actually committed to the whole process. So there is no business like activity there. This is simply building capacity in African SMEs by giving them something that they can make money with, or improve their service delivery

Lastly, the reason we are requesting that the participants go and train others on LPI is the same reason why we have decided that it will be what we train - its vendor neutral and community based.

At least you can also clearly see that this training will will benefit many Africans. This is the one intervention that will have the greatest impact in Africa on the adoption and widespread use of open source software, bar any other form of advocacy.

Mon, 20/09/2010 - 10:13 — Alex Apata (not verified)

When will a programme like this come to West Africa?
Mon, 20/09/2010 - 21:40 — ikua

Alex, there has been great interest in this training from West Africa. It is my hope and expectation that in the coming year we will be able to roll out the ict@innovation programme to the rest of Africa, especially West Africa. This mainly depends on how the first phase goes and of course budget allocations from the funding partners. Keep your fingers crossed.
Wed, 22/09/2010 - 14:16 — Yusuf (not verified)

I know this is late, but it would be great, for the online application to have a slot where Letters of Recommendation can be attached, and then the email addresses provided will not receive numerous attachments, but will instead receive notification from the applicants of their completion of the online application.
Mon, 27/09/2010 - 11:41 — ikua

You are right Yusuf. This is something that we will incorporate in the future. Thanks for that observation.
Thu, 21/10/2010 - 02:09 — Pascal (not verified)

Dear Sir, I am coming from Central Africa, I would like to know if I can apply for the 2nd regional training in South African. What expenses the participants should cover ?
Thu, 21/10/2010 - 09:19 — petra

Dear Pascal,

thanks for your interest in the training. Unfortunately ict@innovation can only support participants from the 5 named Southern African countries for the Johannesburg training. But we are planning to offer the training in West and Central African countries in about one year. We will keep you updated on this.

Best regards

Petra Hagemann Project Manager - ict@innovation InWEnt

Fri, 22/10/2010 - 01:43 — Pascal (not verified)

Thank You Petra !
Sun, 19/12/2010 - 03:02 — Dr. Gregory I. ... (not verified)

Please find my web site located in the above URL. Seven years ago, I dumped Windows and jumped on Linux on my own. The result of that effort is a school I have just put together. I will like some type of partnership with LPI either in the form of a trainer or an affiliate to work with your LPI in Africa. I am originally from Nigeria and would be glad to work for your guys in Nigeria. Should you decide to check out my site, please use the following to log onto the site and have a taste of what I have been doing with Linux. I am comfortable with Centos,Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and a working knowledge of Debian/Ubuntu. I have a good command of Shell Scripting with a BS in Mathematics and Certified as a Computing professional(CCP). 

 Thanks, Dr. Gregory I. Umukoro,CCP

Fri, 24/12/2010 - 12:15 — JONATHAN OKPOTU (not verified)

NEED SPONSORSHIP AND TRAINING(B.Sc COMPUTER SCIENCE, CERTICATE IN NETWORK SECURITY-INDIA)
Thu, 06/01/2011 - 10:23 — petra

Dear Jonathan,

please see the application criteria and procedures above. If you are not elgible to apply, please check this website in a couple of weeks as we will soon publish the training materials on Linux system administration for free download.

Petra Hagemann Project Manager - ict@innovation GIZ

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