How Can Industrial Training Unlock Youth Potential in This Digital Era? Explore the impactful journey with GeoTE & OMDTZ
Written by: Iddy Chazua, Hawa Adinani
What does it mean to truly listen — to hear the voices of students? To hear the unspoken words of graduates with inadequate real-world practical skills? It’s more than just understanding their aspirations; it’s about looking beyond the classroom and exploring how university students can translate their skills into community impact while staying relevant in the challenging employment ecosystem.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, many university graduates face employment challenges despite increasing college enrollment rates. Specifically in Tanzania, the unemployment rate for graduates is significant, with many struggling to find suitable work due to skills mismatches and inadequate hands-on skills. A report by the British Council published in 2014 highlights that employers in Sub-Saharan Africa often cite gaps in essential skills like communication and problem-solving, further hindering job prospects (https://tinyurl.com/2hcaashc). Additionally, the challenge of keeping up with the latest technological advancements adds another layer of complexity.
Today, we see the widespread use of tech, including mobile phones for data collection, drones for disaster assessment and monitoring, 360-degree images for urban reality captures, and end-to-end solutions transforming industries and the way we perform day-to-day tasks. Unfortunately, many graduates struggle to compete in this rapidly evolving market due to a lack of exposure to these technologies, which are increasingly becoming essential.
To contribute to finding a solution, OpenMap Development Tanzania (OMDTZ) has conducted several engagements partnering with universities, replicating the Ramani Huria project model, a World Bank–funded project implemented by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. It was a community-based mapping initiative that trained and worked with university students and local community members to create highly accurate maps of flood-prone areas in the city. OMDTZ is a legacy organization that was born out of this project and moved forward the work in a more innovative way while consulting on the best practices of the project — University industrial training being one of them, with over 3000 university students and graduates having benefited from several initiatives by OMDTZ.
The university engagement model is also adopted and refined by other key stakeholders and partners, such as the Resilience Academy, who developed a structured model for student engagement and we have been partnering with support from the World Bank in hosting training, and coordinating students across various activities during their industrial placement months usualally eight weeks a year, where we provide training such as mobile data collection tools, GIS softwares, drones. Community engagement and attach them to some of our projects so they can practice more.
To create a more sustainable training programme, one of our partners Geospatial Technology and Environment (GeoTE), has organised a similar programme focusing at Sokoine University of Agriculture and we sponsored and supported in providing training on drones and Mapillary as we believe more organizations needs to be involved to achieve the goal and see the change that we want. The program that GoeTE initiated is also supported by other geospatial organizations, including TOMTOM, YouthMappers, and etc, and we call for many more to be part of this.
“The FPT program aims to build a sustainable and scalable platform that equips students with hands-on experience, fosters innovation, promotes mapping for impact, and connects youth to a global network of opportunities. Through strategic partnerships, we seek to expand the program to other universities across Tanzania, empowering more students to map, innovate, and drive change in their communities and beyond.” — Erick Tamba Mnyali, Co-founder, GeoTE
The program offers students a unique opportunity to apply what they’ve learned in classes to real-world problems and be part of the solution. Beyond technical skills, they are introduced to inspiring initiatives worldwide where technology is actively used to solve pressing community problems, such as the use of the 360 street-level imagery in Mapillary to autogenerate data points such as road signs, etc. At this critical crossroads, where innovation meets local knowledge, such experiences empower the next generation to become drivers of sustainable solutions.
Before this program, I wasn’t sure how my GIS knowledge would matter in the real world,” says Naina Abdallah Hamis, a student participant from Sokoine University of Agriculture. “Now, I see how data can save lives, inform planning, and give a voice to underserved communities.”
This realization is at the heart of what makes the industrial training program so transformative. By placing students in real-world settings where technology directly intersects with community needs, the program bridges the gap between classroom theory and meaningful, impact-driven application.
To OMDTZ, this isn’t just a training program — it’s personal to us. OMDTZ was established and is still run by a group of university graduates from the class of 2014/15 who were part of a program similar to this one. We are a testament — living proof — that these programs work and create skilled individuals who can run sustainable organizations, equipped with both technical and managerial skills to lead projects even at a national scale and become agents of change. We’re proud that some of our members are now working with corporations (both local and international), universities, government entities, and more in fields ranging from drone operations, project management, academia, GIS, urban planning, and beyond. So we know the model works!
Reach out to us if you want to partner in providing training or collaborate in other geospatial technology initiatives through this email: admin@omdtz.or.tz
