Kigali, 27 August 2021: The Minister of Education Dr Valentine Uwamariya attended the virtual Governing Council Meeting of Partnership for skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET) in which she was also elected as the new chairperson of the council for this initiative led by African Government, civil society, and partners.

PASSET initiative has been offering a regional approach to developing the necessary skills in STEM areas at the higher education level, and through PASET, African Countries can take advantage of economies of scale and collaborate through a flexible platform.

"Partners such as @WorldBank, Government of Korea and others which allow African countries to leverage knowledge related to international best practices and experiences as well as to take advantage of the global networks these provide".  Dr Valentine Uwamariya acknowledged.

The “Partnership for skills in Applied Sciences Engineering and Technology” (PASET) is an initiative led by African governments and civil society, including the private sector, and international partners who are interested in building the technical-scientific capability of Africa.

The Partnership stands on the bedrock governance principles of accountability and transparency with a focus on results, lower transaction costs, return on investment and long-term, continental capacity building. The purpose of the Partnership is to contribute to building a continuum of skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (ASET) from the technical/vocational to the postgraduate/research level, for sectors that have potential for growth and employment

Among the achievement to date, there have been 3 cohorts of scholars competitively selected for the PASET RSIF whereby the total number of scholars selected in these three cohorts are: 80 Cohort 1 and 2 and 102 Cohort three – making a total of 182 to date of which 20 are Rwandan. The call for cohort 4 has just been made. The principle is that the scholars are hosted in African Host Universities (AHUs) and each of these are supported by International Partner Institute (IPIs) there are a total of 15 AHUs competitively selected to date of which UR ACE for Internet of things is one and a total of 17 IPIs.

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