Community Technicians an asset
In the Community Technicians' project local people gain practical IT work experience and the opportunity to gain a tertiary level IT qualification and provide ongoing technical support to a cluster of their community schools. It is gaining praise from schools and winning awards.
Computers and other information technologies have become a fundamental part of the classroom, however technical support for some schools’ computer networks and hardware is often piecemeal and costly.
The Community Technicians' project (COMTEC) is a Ministry of Education (MOE) initiative aimed at helping rural, remote and/or low decile school clusters identify and train local people who are keen to up skill and provide ongoing technical support to their community schools. It involves 9 school clusters in the North Island and one in the South Island.
Cluster schools will have primary responsibility for finding their potential technician within the community. Schools’ must have a reasonable degree of certainty that the identified person is suitable for the job and able to meet expectations, along the lines of specifications provided by the Ministry of Education.
COMTEC will provide the person with practical IT work experience and the opportunity to gain a tertiary level IT qualification. The MOE will contribute the majority of costs and provide equipment, while cluster schools will provide work experience and support.
After completing the qualification the ‘Community Technician’ is expected to continue to provide a level of support to the schools that is viable for both the schools and the Community Technician.
The Community Technician will be encouraged and supported to expand their service to include other small-community IT users such as farm, marae, and other local businesses.
For more information visit:
http://www.digiops.org.nz/projects/currentprojects/ communitytechnicians/
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