Mr. SIBOMANA Aimable (Right) assisting his customer

I established a company, ‘The Moment Technology’, with another TCT IT graduate (Mr. RURANGWA Placide) in July 2011. At our company, we are providing the following services; internet café, teaching computer skills (e.g. Microsoft Word, Excel, trouble-shooting and hardware), maintenance and repair of computers, networking and cabling, mobile money, cash power, and fixing and selling the second-hand computers. Currently, we have 10 students in the computer class and 50 to 60 customers per day.

After graduation from TCT in January 2011, I worked for One Laptop for Child for some time. However, it was a part-time job on contract-bases. Therefore, instead of just waiting for a full-time employment, I decided to start my own business to make my life stable. When you start your own business, the biggest challenge is the capital. In my case, I saved some money while I worked at One Laptop for Child then bought some equipment such as computers, a scanner, a printer and BIXOLON. The place for our shop was rented by Mr. RURANGWA. In our business, high cost in spare parts and materials gives us a challenge, but we’d like to handle this and expand our business. One advice to TCT junior students is ‘To be competitive in what you are studying at TCT’. Competitive skills are essential to become a successful entrepreneur!

I’m currently working for 2 organizations, Kicukiro College of Technology and Electricom. At Kicukiro College of Technology, I’m teaching practical classes in Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Technology for 2nd and 3rd grade students of Mechanical Engineering Department. It is very interesting because I can develop technical skills through teaching others. At Electricom, I’m working for hydropower plant planning, electrical installation, air-conditioners and refrigeration installation and maintenance etc. as a part-time consultant.

Most favorite part of my work at Electricom is I can work for energy development which is related to what I learnt at TCT. I participated in hydropower plant operation and maintenance training in Zambia which was coordinated by MININFRA from March to April 2011 as an employee of Electricom. After that, we conducted a site survey to examine feasibility of a hydropower plant construction in Northern Province. We are currently preparing the proposal for this project to MININFRA and assembling a water mill runner. I really enjoy working here. It’s only 7 months since I started working so sometimes I meet difficulties. However, whenever it happens, Director helps me and solves that problem. I’d like to keep progress and to become a full time consultant of Electricom in the near future. After I obtain enough skills and experience, I’d like to set up my own company and create cooperation with technical schools through internship and recruitment.

Explaining the water mill runner which is currently under development

I started working at Nelson Mandela Education Centre in February 2011. My friend who was working at this centre introduced me this job. I’m teaching math, electricity and physics. Nelson Mandela Education Centre is a vocational school, so the people who have a wider range of background are studying here. My students are very good. They are from 18 to 25 years-old boys and they like electricity class, especially practical. I’m so happy when I design something, such as an interchange of solar electricity and city power, explain it to students and they implement and succeed it. This improves my skills as well as students’. Sometimes I encounter challenges since I don’t have a lot of experience in teaching yet, but I hope I can improve gradually. Through this work, I want to improve my skills and students’ skills, so that I can contribute to promote the level of Rwandan technicians. Then I want to start my own enterprise in the future.

I’d like to advise junior TCT students that “Work hard to improve your knowledge by reading books and working hard for practical. Knowledge learnt at TCT is introduction. Not only studying hard at classroom but also trying to improve your skills by yourself is vitally important”.

I started working at ETO MUHIMA in September 2009. I found a public advertisement and applied for this job. I took a written exam and interview. The written exam was not difficult since I had knowledge learnt from TCT. I’m currently teaching 4 subjects, namely, practical electronics, electronics laboratory, general electronics and technical transmitter and receiver to 150 students. Students are very serious and keen on learning these subjects. The favorite part in my job is I can increase my knowledge through teaching. I enjoy teaching here, but I also would like to continue study to take Bachelor’s Degree in electronics field

My recommendations to TCT students are; “Although theory is also important to understand practical, practical skills are essential in the real world. So study practical hard!” and “Visit industries to have better understanding on various kinds of machines. There are other types of machines you cannot see at TCT, so visit outside of the school and search and increase your understanding of machines by yourself”.

ETO MUHIMA