Through the AIPI (Access International Partnership In IT), a project between ICT Chamber and BITMi (Bundesverband IT-Mittelstand e.V.) they have officially closed the first cohort of Tech upskill program on Friday, 17th December 2021 at Fab Cafe Kacyiru with 3 days of hackathon; Tech mind benchmarking tour day, Career day and Demo day. In the start, the purpose of this program was to create awareness, build interest in young people, and to identify promising tech talents and innovators across the country through talent detection and tech upskill competition.

The first cohort of the program targeted the skilled students in ICT & Engineering related fields covering both software development as well as hardware innovations that could utilize 4th Industrial Technologies like computer-aided design and manufacturing ( CAD/CAM).

The hackathon brought together talents, software developers and aspiring young professionals with interesting and promising projects. Through the “Tech Upskill” program, these talents from across the country have gone through training and coaching for the past two (2) months in Klab and Fablab to refine their projects and sharpen their skills.

In General, the event was more like exchanging ideas between the innovators/talents and different experts who participated during the hackathon. Some of the institutions like RDB ( Rwanda Development Board), MINICT, Awesomity Lab, Remco,zorabots, SolvIT,etc… participated as panelists in the event, they came prepared to share, talk and listen to the innovators.

Alex Ntare The C.E.O of ICT Chamber Advised the Talents and Innovators to use and benefit from each and every opportunity they have\get such as joining incubation, training, mentorship, and internships from different Companies, in order to gain knowledge and skill that will make them compete at the National and international ecosystem Market .

The first day of Hackathon was all about the Tech mind benchmarking tour, where promising Talents and innovators who were incubated in Klab startups academy and Fablab got a chance to Chat with entrepreneurs and software developers from Awesomity Lab and Remco companies. This was a wonderful experience for them as they learned and asked more questions regarding the Innovation and Solutions of these successful Companies.

A career day which was the second day of the hackathon, it was composed by innovators’ presentations and delightful discussions from the panel of potential employers on the topic “Digital Fabrication and excelling in software development career in Rwanda” and talents/innovators had time to ask questions and to network with the other enthusiastic panel members, where the potential employers share their success stories.

The Demo Day (final hackathon day) had the promising talents and innovators presenting the projects they have been working on during incubation in different categories both software and hardware. Judges assessed their projects and provided awards according to their performance. All the talents and innovators received the training participation certificate, the outstanding performers were rewarded internship opportunities from both Rwanda and Germany championing companies, and others were offered memberships and mentorship in Klab, Fablab, and 250 startups.

Iradukunda Yves, Permanent Secretary in MINICT mentioned that the Government is there to provide support for those who are motivated and courageous. He reminded them that they are the future’s game-changer in ecosystem innovation. So they should try to use all the opportunities they get all over the world and nothing should stop them to dream big or making the next step after completing these training sessions through their projects.

The last day of the hackathon ended with a wonderful Networking opportunity session which we considered to be fruitful for future employers, software developers, talents, and innovators. Everyone was friendly and a joy to be around, there was a positive impression from different people at their levels.