Training the New Group

New Vols teaching their first class

In addition to starting at VIT, I have been doing most of the technical training for the new group of IT volunteers.  If I weren’t busy enough with the new job, this definitely makes sure that I am.

There are 5 new IT teachers in Group 25.  Two girls and three boys.  They, as usual, have a wide variety of previous skills and experience.  Histories range from graphics design to teaching to freelance web-master.  They are a fantastic group and have been fun to work with.  Even as they are nearing site announcements and are tired of training, they manage to keep their creativity up fairly well.  I’m positive that they’ll do well in their sites over the next couple of years.  
Teaching year 6 how to use a mouse
My task has been to teach them basic computer repair and networking so that they can keep their labs running.  Essentially, our goal is to make them entry level techs in 8 weeks around all their other language, cultural, safety/security, medical, and technical training.  Peace Corps is definitely an experience in figuring out how to do things on the fly.  We do what we can to give people the resources they need to figure it out but don’t have time for too much more than that.  There is also going to be a wide range of technical levels needed for their labs.  Some of them are going to need to know basic networking, others aren’t.  Laying the groundwork for those higher level things has definitely earned me some glazed over looks but they’ve been good students and at least have an idea of the basics.  During their training at the beginning of next year, I’ll be able to give them a bit more targeted and tailored sessions based on what they’ll actually need at their site.  For now, they just get to ask me to explain subnets again.

Cross-posted to our new blog at tegabis.com

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