28 May 2020.
With training at our Centre for Excellence still on hold due to the pandemic, we want to keep our trainees motivated and their new skills fresh in their minds.
Our Training Team have been working on our distance learning pilot which will go live next week. It was felt that a series of short lessons delivered through videos would be a positive way to engage trainees and enable the continuation of our training.
Trainees will have access to electronic tables, with new lessons loaded onto the tablets by our Training Team each week. With a detailed course syllabus and lesson plans for each of our courses, we have identified key elements of training that can be delivered remotely.
With our Training Team both in front and behind the camera, they have been filming the first lessons for our Brick and Blocklaying trainees.
Delivered in the local language Nyanja, the first videos are focusing on bonding (the arrangement of bricks in a structure) including:
- Personal Protective Equipment and Health & Safety
- Setting out the brick walling (dry bonding)
- Construction of a 1-brick thick wall in stretcher bond
Trainees are being set a small number of tasks throughout the lessons which will be completed either at home, or via telephone discussions with their trainer. Written assessments are being kept to the minimum since lack of literacy was identified as a potential barrier to written learning materials.
And not only will the tablets be used to deliver lessons at home, but they will also be used to raise awareness around COVID-19 with information and advice to help keep our trainees, their families and their communities safe and well.
Our Trainer Justus Katungulu takes us through the first brick and blocklaying lessons
Our Administrator Tasila Mwale has been behind the camera capturing the action
