ICT training brings hope to young people

Bahar, 18, gazes at a computer screen in the computer training centre just outside the western Turkmen city of Balkanabat in an effort to master the basics of computer literacy. She finished secondary school a year ago but, like many young people in the country, hasn't been able to find a job yet. "I came here to learn how to use a computer as, wherever I apply, government institutions or private companies, the first thing they ask is 'Can you use a computer?'. Therefore I decided to learn how to operate this machine," she told IRIN at the training centre of UNDP InfoTuk project, based in the city municipality building. The InfoTuk centre in Balkanabat opened in November 2002. It is aimed at providing computer literacy training, along with Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook usage, so that people gain the skills to operate computers at work, enabling those who are unemployed to find jobs, Andrey, an instructor at the centre, told IRIN in Balkanabat. Local residents were very interested in the project as there were some 150 unemployed and some 50 public servants on the waiting list, he said. As there are only seven personal computers in the centre, it cannot meet demand. Asked whether their courses helped unemployed trainees find work, the centre's instructor said that since July 2003, almost 30 percent of those on courses had found jobs. The training is free of charge. But just across the road there is a private computer training centre with many people, mostly young girls, paying substantial amounts of money to get a certificate. However, Murat, who used to monitor a private training project, told IRIN that their quality was questionable. "They charge a lot of money, and two or three people use the same computer at the same time. Therefore, even when they get their certificates after months of training they don't know much about the thing," he said. Most of the trainees are females. "Girls apply to our centre as it is easier for them to find a job as a secretary," Andrey added. There is also a similar training centre in the western city of Turkmenbashi, formerly known as Krasnovodsk, on the Caspian coast. "All those willing to pass training at our centre, particularly public servants, the temporarily unemployed and mainly those who have finished schools, can attend our courses," a manager of the Turkmenbashi centre told IRIN. Last summer we had training aimed at assisting those fresh from secondary schools, which was later joined by some university graduates, she said. "The city's education department approached us asking to pay special attention to them," she said, adding that the prospects of finding a job without computer skills were poor. "The significance of the project is teaching computer literacy and we give the opportunity to those people who have the basics of computer literacy to get information via the Internet and to enhance their knowledge," Nabat Gurbanniyazova, a consultant for UNDP, told IRIN in the capital, Ashgabat. According to analysts, information and communications technologies (ICT) development in Turkmenistan is one of the least developed in the Central Asian region based on the number of users and domains. A study conducted in 2000 by UNDP said Turkmenistan ranks amongst the lowest in the world in terms of web hosts, Internet users and country domains. More than 95 percent of registered Internet users are in Ashgabat, and the government-run Turkmentelecom is the only Internet service provider (ISP) in the country. Although the centres in Balkanabat and Turkmenbashi had planned to offer Internet training, in reality this is only offline training as neither centre has access to the World Wide Web, because of poor connectivity in the country. According to Internet World Stats, an international website featuring up-to-date Internet usage statistics, there were 8,000 Internet users in Turkmenistan as of December 2001, a tiny percentage in a total population, according to official statistics, of some 6.5 million. Looking elsewhere in the region, in Kazakhstan the penetration was 1.8 percent in December 2002; one percent in Uzbekistan; in Tajikistan, recovering from the consequences of the civil war in 1990s, it was the same as in Turkmenistan - 0.1 percent. Kyrgyzstan had the highest penetration in the region - 2.9 percent. Given such a bleak picture, the UNDP in Turkmenistan is trying to provide assistance in expanding opportunities for access and training in the use of modern IT, particularly the Internet, through its nationally executed project, "Information Sharing in Turkmenistan for Sustainable Human Development (InfoTuk). One of InfoTuk's primary goals is to increase the level of IT knowledge among the public. "The project provides basics of computer knowledge and through that, people, especially the youth, can find a basic job which is related to computers. Also we focus on involving public servants so as to increase their knowledge of IT and they in their turn would provide support while forming a national programme on IT technologies," Gurbanniyazova said. There are eight IT training centres in the country, seven of them in the provinces and one in the capital. Ashgabat is one of the few places in the country where one can get Internet access. Since October 2003, an Internet access unit is operating in the InfoTuk training centre in Ashgabat providing free access to the Internet. There is a still long way to go. One of the outstanding issues is a lack of printed material on the issue. "More print material, including brochures, on ICT is needed," Gurbanniyazova noted, urging international organisations and other interested parties to be more proactive in organising various training events on ICT for development.