Academic Programme.

The national educational policy states that more Rwandans will be educated both in terms of quality and quantity ; and the country will more easily solve poverty related problems. Rwandans will no longer be compelled to depend on public services for employment, but will instead become job creators themselves.

Agriculture and animal husbandry related problems : Rwanda also widely known “as a country of thousand hills”, currently faces very crucial problems in the field of agriculture : erosion problems, soil deterioration, deforestation, soil and water management, and many others. So many obstacles to the national development exist and require urgent solutions.

With regard to animal husbandry, some problems still exist even though the adoption of high performance exotic cattle for milk production is becoming a common practice. Actually these animals have not yet proven their genetic endowment. According to the study carried out in the field, this deficiency is, among other causes, due to poor management, poor feeding, inadequate reproduction systems, lack of enough knowledge in financial management and so on.

Solutions to these problems are possible through training people and providing them with enough skills and capacities in the needed fields.

COMPETENCY-BASED LEARNING
For the time being, ISAE has enough expertise and equipment to successfully put in place competence-based learning (CBL) approach. ISAE is already prepared to carry out its mission of being a nationwide pilot scheme of expertise as far as agriculture, animal husbandry and rural economic transformation at levels A1 and A0 are concerned.

On the basis of required skills, the programs have undergone significant changes in that they have been oriented and adapted to the national key problems.

A periodical evaluation is carried out to ensure an efficient follow up of the program and the field appreciation of graduates’ achievements, with regard to quality and skills that are demonstrated. This will enable the institution to ensure a continuous adaptation in order for it to meet the labor market requirements.

For an educational institution, reviewing program is seen as a routine activity. This activity is carried out on continuous basis and whenever there is a need to do so. Such a review can be motivated by a series of new scientific findings or simply by prevailing labor market needs, at a given period of time. New markets require new approaches for their components to be studied, understood, and optimized. There can also be program review when a new learning methodology has to be introduced in the program.

The aim of CBL approach is to provide specialized technicians with enough training so that they not only get involved in implementing but also take part in organizing and initiating field activities. These professionals assist planning and implementing agencies for formulation of programs ; therefore, their acquisition of technical skills which will enable them to perform such a contribution is a must when problems relating to agriculture, animal husbandry, national development and environmental conservation emerge.

These ‘managers’, as regards to labor market, are employed by decentralized structures within Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources “MINAGRI”, especially in development of managerial activities and dissemination of technologies. They are also employed by various NGOs working in the field of rural area transformation. Research and educational institutes also hire them as research assistants, laboratory attendants and so on. They are also employed as teachers in technical agricultural schools as well as in agricultural development. Private entrepreneurship in the area of agriculture is also recommended to such managers and they can be job creators and producers too.

When these technicians give their assistance to researchers, whether for the field experiments or in laboratories, they focus on accurate research procedures as far as data collection, analysis, interpretations and recommendations are concerned.

The new competency based programs will ensure a clear orientation of the training which is provided by ISAE. This program meets the expectations of both the partners and ISAE graduates as was declared during earlier seminars held on 15-16 December 2004 and 26 April 2005 for graduates and partners respectively. This program meets the national needs, and those of partners and graduates with regard to Rural Area Economic Transformation.

The programs objectives : career profiles and competences

On the basis of the survey conducted among 45 graduates, 5 career profiles have been formulated. The priority order is as follows :
• Rural Development extentionist
• Manager/supervisor/ director
• Research assistant,
• Laboratory assistant
• Teacher

Partners added other two profiles within the framework of Rural Economic Transformation. This has to do with soil management, which is currently a division at ISAE and technical training for Agricultural Product Conservation and Transformation. As a result, a decision was take to start the department of Food Science and Technology in 2009.

Partners, furthermore, suggested that entrepreneurship and planning in the field of development projects should be given more emphasis within ISAE program. In fact, this has to do with the competencies that graduates have to acquire during the course of their studies but that requires adapting educational methods rather than working out new orientations.

From a discussion held between teachers and Dutch partners who run collaboration activities through PRISAE project, revealed that ISAE program are organized on the basis of subjects such as Crop Productions, Animal Productions, Animal Health, Agricultural Engineering and Agroforestry whereas competencies required at the labor market are rather interdisciplinary : Rural Development mobilizers, manager/supervisor/ director, research assistant, laboratory assistant, etc.

It was then decided to organize the program in accordance with competencies required by the labor market, but employers (especially government-owned organizations and NGOs for 80% surveyed graduates) would include particular requirements when they are advertising a given job.

ISAE has kept on providing A1 technicians and A0 engineers with training. In addition, refresher courses for A1 and A2 laureates, now field technicians are planned through short period courses. Research should also constitute a concern for ISAE in that it has to provide the market with research assistants.