June Valley Youths Involved in FREE Computer Training

There were several trainings I've conducted so far but this one is very special indeed and it's targeting the youths roaming around the streets.  The training introduces participants to the basic fundamentals anyone needs to know as a computer literate person.  This set of training is called Basics in Computing and has three parts as outlined in my previous post (If you read this post and would like to know more, please read my previous post where I mentioned the names of all the Free trainings and gave brief overview of their contents).

June Valley Youths in their first training

 It was on the 21st of July 2012 where I had a chance of arranging a group of youths for the training.  I contacted my sources around June Valley area, one of the settlements in Port Moresby and asked them to collect names of Youths, both male and female to come and attend the Free trainings that I have prepared for such group.  These were youths from a particular network who quickly responded to my invitation.  The number was good at the initial stage where we had over 25 participants registering for the training.

The training was fun and the group really enjoyed our first session.  The participants were very emotional about the training and requested for more of similar trainings so they could participate.  They also asked me if they could have the other progressive trainings As Soon As Possible.  I assured them that they would have it as requested but within schedule because I had to be mindful of my obliged duties as an academic within this Institution (The University of Papua New Guinea).  I told them that I wish I had more free times available however I Don't.  I came to an agreement with my family so I had to use the weekends to help "Share the knowledge" as I call.  I therefore, schedule the next training on a weekday and the third on a weekend.  It all turned up well and 90% of the participants who registered completed the training.

Straight after the completion of the third round of Basics in Computing training, some of them came to me and asked if they could come back the following weekend to assist me and learn as we progress with the other participants.  I saw their desire to really learn beyond the basics and at the same time identified the need I had which is additional manpower to assist me during the trainings.

June Valley Youths assisting the Mothers who attended the training for Women

Training a person who knows absolutely nothing about computer is in fact a frustrating and time-consuming move.  Training an elderly person compared to a youth and a very young child also does have great differences.  You need more than one person to assist every participant as the training progresses.  That would equate the time frame for each session and the number of participants interested to learn the basics.  The youths were very committed and have assisted me helping new participants all throughout the three consecutive weekends (before the time of this post). 

Before the start of every trainings and after every trainings, I normally take some time off, asking the participants to tell me where their level of competencies are in computing.  The amazing discovery is that more than half the participants of every training said they can't believe they could get such training for free and how far they've gone compared to the time they've started.  After completing the 7 hours of trainings (three trainings) they looked back and reflected commenting "We don't know anything about using a computer and performing actions such as "starting and shutting a computer, navigating around windows explorer, creating and manipulating files and creating their first document" but now we can do those.