The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) is rolling out a series of new training and development programmes as part of its initiative to address the capacity needs and requirements of the ICT sector, as well as helping to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals for ICT.the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation is an international development partnership between the Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth governments, businesses and civil society organisations. CTO provides the international community with effective means to help bridge the digital divide and achieve social and economic development, by delivering to developing countries unique knowledge-sharing programmes in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). With the ICT sector focused on expanding networks and migrating to new technologies and standards, and given the ever-growing and greater reliability of wireless over fixed networks, meeting the training needs resulting from these changes remains paramount.

“The current schedule already includes over 40 workshops and courses to be held in the Pacific, Africa and Caribbean regions, and plan to further increase this in the coming weeks” said Marcel Belingue, CTO’s senior manager for training and capacity building programmes.

The first of this new programme of courses include “Mobile Number Portability” (20 – 24 June, South Africa); “WiMAX Networks” (25-29 July, Jamaica, 27 June – 1 July 2011, South Africa); as well as a series of courses on telecommunications management (“Introduction to Fixed and Wireless Networks”, “Risk Management and Business Continuity Planning”, “Customer Relations Management”, and “Telecoms Economics” from 30 May - 8 July 2011, New Delhi, India).

“Our members continue to face new challenges and opportunities. For most of them, demand for voice, data and applications continues to grow; at the same time, many are also preparing for 4G and NGN networks and services, while others continue to invest in high-capacity core networks and extend access infrastructure.  Our 2011-12 technology and management programmes are designed to help them optimise their operations take full advantage of these new opportunities”, Mr Belingue added.

The programmes developed by the CTO in collaboration with industry partners and member organisations are  specially designed in collaboration with experienced global industry experts, telecom operators and industry consulting firms to deliver a comprehensive understanding of the theories and best practices behind each topic.