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Don’t quit school before completing your course because of money, students advised
College Principal at Makerere University College of computing and information science (CoCIS), Tonny Oyana (second from left) and Liu Ying, (third from left) the Deputy Director of Chongqing College of Electronics Engineering in China at the launch of the IOT laboratory at Makerere University on November 1, 2123. Photo/Roland D Nasasira
The College Principal at Makerere University College of computing and information science (CoCIS) Tonny Oyana has advised students at the college to complete their courses and avoid abandoning studies when they are presented with job opportunities that pay them a lot of money.
Mr Oyana made the call on Wednesday morning while launching the Internet of Things (IOT) laboratory that was set up through a collaboration with the University College and Chongqing College of electronics engineering in China and Makerere University.
The first of its kind at Makerere, Mr Oyana said the college is currently training students to receive a diploma in (IOT) both in Uganda and a certificate from China. The first cohort had five students while the second has 18.
“Most of them already got jobs and left the course. Hold tight till the end of the course and don’t quit because of a juicy job offer. You will negotiate a better salary when you are fully qualified so that you can get better salary because the IOT course offers credible opportunities for Ugandans,” Mr Oyana advised.
According to Oyana, IOT equips students with knowledge and skills and opens their minds about developing cutting edge technology to solve problems of the future.
“It (IOT) course has incredible opportunities for young people because the ability for devices to communicate with one another and giving assignments to robots is technology that’s slowly taking over the job market yet a lot more technology is needed in many fields. A phone to phone and being able to open your gate at home without a watchman and gadgets being able to see what’s missing in the fridge is where we are going. Embrace the opportunity when there’s still chance,” Oyana added.
On his part, Lin Yong, the Assistant Dean, School of Communications and Engineering said IOT is a potential applications field because it solves problems such as traffic jam that is a menace to almost all cities all over the world.
“When organised scientifically, IOT can improves efficiency of traffic. You can design traffic lights that sense lanes with traffic and let vehicles flow to reduce traffic congestion. This in the long run minimises economic loss for countries and companies. The knowledge from the course can also be applied in industries in the manufacturing process by improving the quality of products given the fact that Uganda is mainly an agricultural based country,” Mr Yong said.
“In the daily evolving technology world, IOT graduates can seek employment in agriculture, industries and in the communications sectors by developing embedded and integrity systems to accomplish tasks so that employers reduce labour costs through employing more people and the work is done by machines,” he added.
Liu Ying, the Deputy Director of Chongqing College of Electronics Engineering in China says apart from acquiring professional skills, the IOT students can also be linguists by learning Chinese language and culture and have a fundamental understanding of Chinese companies and be employable wherever they exist across the world.
According to Oyana, the qualifications for studying the IOT course is an advanced level certificate. Continuing students who have already registered for Bachelors of computer science and software development can also enroll for the program.
