South Korea and World Bank to Train Young African Engineers Together

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on May 22 that it has launched a project to train graduate engineering students in Africa in cooperation with the World Bank. To this end, the ministry participated in the 5th PASET Forum of the World Bank and the PASET board of directors meeting in Kigali, Rwanda on May 20 and 21, discussing specific action plans for the project.

In the project, the ministry will be in charge of the management of the Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund (RSIF) in South Korea and South Korean colleges and government-run research institutes will provide two-year training for African graduate students in the field.

For example, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology provides R&D training programs for 12 students starting from September this year and similar programs will be provided next year by the Korea Institute of Energy Research, the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, and Seoul National University.

Established in 2013, the Partnership for skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET) is a World Bank-led initiative with the objective of strengthening the science, technology and engineering capability in sub-Saharan Africa. A total of 26 African countries, including Senegal, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Côte d'Ivoire, are its current members. The RSIF is its fund for the purpose of fostering the growth of startups and nurturing 10,000 graduate engineering students in the member countries. The five African countries and South Korea invested US$10 million each in the fund.