Irish Aid proud to support digital media

Andrew Mzanza, one of the students studying for the diploma in Digital Media in Evelyn Hone College, Lusaka, Zambia

Over the past three years, Irish Aid has supported creative digital media in Zambia through €195,780 in funding that has enabled the introduction of Zambia’s first Diploma in Digital Media at Evelyn Hone College in Lusaka. 

The three-year Diploma includes web design, animation, graphics, sound, desktop editing and project management. It was developed as an innovative vocational education initiative between Dublin’s Ballyfermot College of Further Education, Evelyn Hone College and Zambia’s Technical Education, Vocation and Entrepreneurship Training Authority (TEVETA). The Diploma is at level 6 on the Zambian National Qualifications Framework. 

Irish Aid’s overall objectives in relation to creative digital media in Zambia are:

-        to help the Diploma in Creative Digital Media to provide global industry-standard education for its students;

-        to build a strong collaborative basis for further new courses in music technology, animation and other areas; and

-        to contribute to poverty alleviation through modern innovative high skills vocational education which supports employment and the emerging digital media industry.

Andrew Mwanza, one of the first students to enrol, described the impact of the new Diploma:  “This is changing my life.  When I completed school in 2009, I had no career path in my country. Creative digital media is what I wanted to study. But it was not available and my parents couldn’t send me abroad for studies. Now I am grateful that this has come to Zambia.”

Zambia is one of the ten most rapidly improving countries on the UN international ICT Development Index

The digital landscape in Zambia is changing. It was recently recognised as one of the ten most rapidly improving countries on the United Nations International ICT Development Index. The graduates from the Diploma in Digital Media will contribute to the emerging industry and is therefore a powerful tool for inclusive development.

The Zambia Digital Media programme forms part of Irish Aid’s Programme for Strategic Cooperation.