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Project Goal
Awareness of the value of geographic information application in Namibia has grown rapidly amongst public and private entities. This growth can be attributed partly to the tireless effort made by the Land Management Department at the Polytechnic of Namibia to integrate GIS-related courses in all its academic programmes since 1998. As Namibia seeks to facilitate and enhance service delivery to support an expanded, ambitious and accelerated development agenda of eliminating poverty in the country, the demand for a well-trained workforce in GIS has also grown tremendously in the last five years.Business Problem Solved
The strategy of integrating GIS related courses in other academic programmes could not satisfy the demand for highly skilled GIS professionals in Namibia. Thus in 2007, the Bachelor’s Degree in Geoinformation Technology (BDGIT) was designed and implemented in 2008 to meet specific needs. This was achieved by having multiple exit levels to ensure that the education and training meet the national uniqueness in terms of the required skills in GIS. The skills range needed covers GIS software operators, application developers, spatial analysts, etc. The qualifications exit points are at National Certificate (1 year), Diploma (2 years) and finally Bachelor’s degree (3 years).
Technology Implemented
The training is done on the ESRI ArcGIS 9.3 software with all extensions, running on windows XP platform and Intel Duo core 2.1GHz processor with 2GB RAM and 160GB HDD machines. The laboratory is fully wired with multimedia training equipment and is fully Internet enabled with broadband connection. The Department is working hard to transform the facility into a Centre of Excellence for GIS education and training in the SADC region.
Development Team Biography
The team in the development was made up of Lameck Mwewa as project leader, Vera de Cauwer content advisor and Joe Lewis as curriculum advisor within the polytechnic management ranks
