Public Access to ICT and Employment: Case of the Impact of Public Access to ICT Skills on Job Prospects in Rwanda

This paper describes work that was carried out under the Amy Mahan Research Fellowship Program at the University Pompeu Fabra through the support of Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC). It analyses an in-progress study of the impact of public access to information and communication technology (ICT) skills on job prospects in Rwanda. From the Abstract: "The modern Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is widely seen by countries as a major drive for their socio-economic development. This is demonstrated by huge investments put in ICT projects. Despite such investments, less is done to evaluate the impact of the access to ICT in specific sectors such as employment. This paper presents a study which intends to evaluate the impact of ICT skills acquired from public access ICT venues on job prospects in Rwanda. A mixed method approach is adopted to carry out the investigation. The study is in progress such that the paper does not present any findings, but the study is expected to contribute to the improvement of our understanding of the impact of public access to ICT and to have a potential public policy impact."

The study addresses the following major research issues:
• What ICT skills do users of public access ICT venues acquire from the venues?
• How does public access to ICT change the levels of users’ computer skills?
• What impact do ICT skills acquired from public access ICT venues have on venue users’ job prospects?

The study used a questionnaire with 2 categories of ICT users: those who have acquired ICT skills from public access ICT venues and those who did not acquire ICT skills from public access ICT venues, but obtained skills from formal education or informal practice outside of public venues. Tables and graphs will be used for presenting results and for a correlation test between acquired ICT skills and job prospects, including the following information:
1. Number of people who have been informed about job opportunities via the internet
2. Number of people who have submitted their job applications via the internet
3. People’s attitude on internet-based communication while searching a job
4. Number of people who had an ICT component in recruitment tests
5. Importance given to the ICT component during recruitment tests
6. People’s attitude on ICT skills during a recruitment test or job creation
7. Number of people who have created their own ICT-based jobs as a result of having acquired ICT skills from public access ICT venues.

The logic model graph presented on page 4 of the document shows the schema: Input: ICT infrastructure and instructors; Activity: Learning ICT skills; Output: ICT skills; Outcome: Search and apply for jobs, meet ICT competencies, or create an ICT-based business; Impact: Improved job prospects.

This document concludes: "The study will contribute to our understanding of the impact of public access to ICTs and will have a potential public policy impact as it will show proven facts of how both positively and negatively the existing ICT policies and interventions are affecting ICT skills acquisition and the contribution of these skills to the improvement of job prospects. The chosen case-study based method has the potential to produce results that are convincing while communicating with policy makers for a potential public policy impact."