System engineers from across Ethiopia’s higher education sector underwent an intensive three-day training in Addis Ababa from April 27-30. Funded by the European Union under the AfricaConnect4 Project, the hands-on workshop was facilitated by the Ethiopian Education and Research Network (EtherNET) in conjunction with UbuntuNet Alliance. The workshop sought to strengthen the engineers’ capabilities to deliver the required ICT services at their institutions, including Trust and Identity, Containerisation and Orchestration, Disaster Recovery, and Big Data Management.
Speaking during the opening session, EthERNet’s CEO, Dr Zelalem Assefa, noted that it was a great opportunity to see such valuable training being held in Ethiopia.
“As EthERNet continues to work to connect institutions and strengthen capacity building, training like this enhances our universities’ technical skills and interconnection capabilities. Thank you so much, UbuntuNet Alliance, for your continuing support of EthERNet. We look forward to continuing our engagement in the future and become even more productive.”
During his opening remarks, Prof Madara Ogot, CEO of UbuntuNet Alliance, stressed the importance of networking, exchanging ideas, and sharing experiences during the in-person meeting. He also expressed admiration for the great strides Ethiopia had made in increasing women’s participation in STEM, noting that about 50% of the 25 system engineers present were women.
The training was the second in the 2026 series of in-country workshops organised by the Alliance, following the first, held in Botswana in February on Cyber-Security. The final workshop in the series, covering Systems, shall be held in Rwanda in July.
