Capacity Development Workshop for AfgREN Network Engineers

22-25 July, Kabul, Afghanistan

Target audience:

IT managers from public universities across Afghanistan (20 participants)

Featured 'In the Field Stories' : 

https://www.inthefieldstories.net/helping-afghanistans-youth-rebuild-their-future/

Lead organisation:

Manaka Technology Services (MTS)

Objective:

To enhance the capacity of AfgREN network engineers /managers with a set of theoretical and practical knowledge/skills to enable them to effectively manage the AfgREN network.  

Approach:

The main objective is to equip the participants with a set of technical skills to enhance their job efficiency. The final goal isto ensure that they are capable of configuring, managing, and troubleshooting AfgREN/network routers, switches and other network nodes at public universities in Afghanistan. This workshop was arranged by Kabul-based Manaka Technology Services (MTS) in consultation with the Department of IT of the Ministry of Higher Education of Afghanistan, and received financial support from the Asi@Connect project as one of the selected programs of the 1st Call for proposals.

Program:

The 4-day workshop was divided into two parts:

a) awareness-raising of R&E networking and specifically about AfgREN, Afghanistan’s national R&E network;

b) main training program.

During the workshop, the participants gained a good grounding in routing and switching. The workshop included related topics such AP configuration, VTC management and fiber pptic cable maintenance. The sessions provided participants with good practice on Cisco device initial configuration and troubleshooting. The training was interactive and hands-on. The participants took keen interest in discussions and in understanding new and better ways of device configuration. The practical sessions were designed in such a way that all participants could study in detail and have access to the tools and equipment. On the last day of the workshop, a written test was conducted for all participants to evaluate their learning level and accreditation. The course completion certification was awarded to those who scored above 50% in this written exam. 

Impact:

The workshop provided useful practice and expertise about the network and its management and resulted in a better understanding of AfgREN and R&E networks by the participants. Finally, the workshop also offered ample opportunities for human networking among local IT managers.  

Voices from the field:

Video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwILn8H62KA&feature=youtu.be

Abdul Ahmad Ahmadi

·         What is your role at your institution and what challenges do you face in your job?

  I am the IT manager at Ghor Institute of Higher Education. The main challenges I face in my day-to-day job is the insufficiency of network devices such as firewalls, unstable internet connection and power issues. A single power outage, surge, or spike can damage expensive electronic components and result in critical data loss.

·           What made you sign up for this workshop?

Well, the main motivation was to acquire new skills to optimize our contributions to the Institute and, by extension, to increase its reputation. Interacting with other engineer colleagues and meeting experts face-to-face is a great learning experience which keeps me motivated and allows me to tackle new tasks.

·          Did the training live up to your expectations? 9 months on from the workshop, have you had a chance to put the acquired know-how into practice in your day-to-day job?

The workshop prompted me to explore new ways of working and I have already started to put my learning around routing and switching into practice back home. However, the lack of network equipment at our Institute has not allowed me so far to fully exploit my new skills.

·         What would be on top of your wish list for a training workshop in the future?

     I would like to further advance my expertise in routing, switching and server configuration, but am equally interested in network security, virtualization, troubleshooting, cloud computing as well as open source servers such as Linux.  

Bahruddin Hanif

·          What is your role at your institution and what challenges do you face in your job?

I am the IT General Manger at Badakhshan university; as you can imagine as we in a remote area of Afghanistan, there is a lack of qualified IT staff and expertise, specifically in routing and switching.

·           What made you sign up for this workshop?

The hope to get up to speed on managing our network with more confidence.

·         Did the training live up to your expectations? 8 months on from the workshop, have you had a chance to put the acquired know-how into practice in your day-to-day job?

Yes, it was indeed useful and feel more confident now. There are still some open issues which I hope to be able to tackle by attending a future workshop .

·         What would be on top of your wish list for a training workshop in the future?

As you know knowledge, especially in IT, is changing by the minute, my wish is to learn more about routing switching and managing networks.