Members of the ICM Communications Team have visited the Bethel Training Institute (BTI) in Jinja, Uganda, to find out more about the centre and how it operates.

The centre is located in the picturesque town of Jinja, which lies in the south of Uganda. Often described as the second largest town in the country, outside of the capital Kampala, it has a population of more than 105,000, with a large market and many shops located in the town centre, alongside the training institute.

BTI is a large, colourful former residential building that is well-equipped with computers and learning facilities, including a main lecture hall, two lecture rooms and three computer classrooms. It also has a workshop where its computers are built and fixed, and where students can learn about computer maintenance. Around 250 students are currently studying at the centre.

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ICM’s computing courses are the most popular courses offered by the centre, and more than 130 students from the training institute took ICM examinations last year. The centre looks set to match or even increase that number this year – especially with the creation of a new educational building for the centre. The team at BTI is planning the new educational building in an effort to accommodate more students and help increase the computer facilities available to pupils. Construction should be completed by the end of June.

Mrs Edith Mubiike, BTI’s Principal, explained the need for a new building: “Bethel Training Centre is accommodated on residential premises. We’ve acquired land in the Njeru town where we have ten acres of land and have started constructing the first phase of seven classes, of which so far four have been built. We need a bigger space where we can accommodate, say, about 80 students in every classroom. We believe that if the construction is done, then we will have more people coming in as students.”

ICM students from the Bethel Training Institute have gone on to many successes, including the Hon. Kibedi Zaake Wanume, who took the ICM Advanced Diploma in Human Resources Management. He is now the Youth Member of Parliament for Eastern Uganda – and the youngest MP in the whole of the Ugandan Government. Click here to read more about him.

The visit was incorporated into the team’s trip to Uganda to film and photograph Bournemouth scout leaders as they spent ten days in the country for a recce, ahead of the scouts’ trip in 2010.

By Susanna Woods