Preparing African Youth for the Digital Future: Mauritius Delegation Presentation

1. Destination Digital Africa: Preparing our Youth for the FutureCOUNTRY DELEGATION PRESENTATION TO FINAL PLENARY SESSION Country Name: Mauritius DhanjayJhurry (Univ of Mauritius) 5th PASET Forum Kigali, Rwanda| May 22, 2019

2. Changes in Higher Education and TVET courses to prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Digital Economy • What are the critical new courses that you would help to introduce in higher education and at the TVET level? What actions will you take to start introducing new courses and new methodologies? What changes need to be introduced in how university and TVET courses are taught and assessed? • We have developed new Bachelor programmes at the UoM in close partnerships with foreign univs (UA, Univ Paris Seine) in (i) Cyber Operations and (ii) Modelling and Data Science • We have switched to the ECTS to develop more independent learning; we have put in place flipped classrooms; we offer at present 110 modules on-line; we offer Masters programmes jointly with IT companies to address skills mismatch; we have developed an IT and Digital cluster to foster amongst others students training and research on real projects; we provide training to upgrading industry personnel. • What steps can be taken to improve the collection of information on the specific and changing requirements of employers and integrate them into these new courses? • At the UoM, we have put in place a University-Industry Liaison Office which acts as a one-stop shop for industry and aims at fostering linkages with industry.

3. Changes in Higher Education and TVET courses to prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Digital Economy • Is there any approach/ experience of another country that you have learnt during this Forum that will benefit you? What kind of capacity building is required? Skills needs assessment is critical. We may resort to institutions (IFC) and companies (Job Kred) specialized in that area. To enhance skills for the job market, we could resort to providers like UDEMY and STEP INNOVATIONS AFRICA for TVET. The question of how to respond to immediate needs of foreign investors remains a problem. Re-skilling of employees from low/medium level technology industry to higher levels remains a problem

4. Using Technology to Transform Higher Education and TVET • What technologies could you immediately implement to improve access and quality in Higher Education and TVET? What technologies could you plan to deploy in the next 3-5 years ? For what purpose? On-line platforms (Moodle, Mooc), mobile apps, OERQI initiative, USPGlobal initiative • How would you incentivize and help teachers / faculty to adopt technologies? Provide training, develop platforms, shift to a learner centred credit system, use of flipped classrooms, use of AR/VR, transition from classroom 1.0 to 3.0 • How would you assess whether the technology is helping to improve student learning? Through QA procedures in place at Universities to monitor delivery of progs and learners experience

5. Using Technology to Transform Higher Education and TVET • What reforms could be introduced to improve procurement of technologies, ensure local content, and address the other challenges outlined in your questionnaire etc? While partnerships remain essential, contextualisation is capital. That can be embedded into case studies and internships • What kind of technical assistance do you need? In what specific areas? How will you get them? Acquisition of platforms needs investment. Need for Labs with the necessary high tech equipment Convince Govt for investment Strategic Partnership

6. Planning ahead • What government policies or regulations need to change in order to enable higher education/ TVET institutions to be better prepared, better connected, and able to deploy technology? Be as specific as possible. Develop a clear and coherent plan of action for investment in technologies; increase financial assistance to universities/TVET; encourage the development of home-grown technologies • What are the most critical investments? How would you sequence them? Investment in infrastructure/classrooms, labs, technologies, training

7. Planning ahead • How would you go about preparing a costed action plan, with prioritized investments to improve university and TVET courses, improving connectivity, and using technology in education? Take stock of the needs and put in place a concerted strategy at national level • Which other Ministries do you need to work with ? Finance; Technology, Communication and Innovation; SMEs; Industry • How should we improve knowledge sharing between countries in this area? Regular meetings like PASET; Concerted actions amongst networks to avoid duplication and wastage of resources • How will you / should we monitor progress in implementation? • Defining Performance Indicators