A total of 33 academic staff and students from the University of Mauritius (UoM) had followed a training in Deep Learning in December 2019, delivered by Associate Professor Dr. Willie Brink from Stellenbosch University, South Africa. This project was approved under the AI Skills Development Programme set up by the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC).

The training culminated to mini projects which were worked out collaboratively amongst students and academics.

With a view to showcasing four of these mini-projects, UoM in collaboration with the HRDC organised a webinar on 17 September from 10 00 hrs to 11 30 hrs. The presentations were delivered by four participants comprising academic staff and students who took part in the training:

Around 20 participants from both public and private institutions attended the webinar.

Click here to download the Webinar Presentation

About the training

The objectives of the training in Deep Learning (DL) were to:

• provide students and lecturers with the opportunity to upgrade their skills and knowledge in DL which is an industry focused technology;
• improve the employability of ICT graduates;
• build internal capacity of the University academic staff in deep learning for transfer of knowledge; and
• link the university to advanced foreign resources in DL to raise the level of academic staff and students in DL.

Students with IT/Mathematics/Engineering backgrounds having followed this course can work in all the areas requiring deep analysis and evaluation of data (such as classification, clustering among others). These students can work in the IT industries, banking and finance, and others.

Academic staff competent in DL can in turn integrate some aspects of DL in modules as well as act as resource persons locally.

Background Information

The field of artificial intelligence is essentially when machines can do tasks that typically require human intelligence. It encompasses machine learning, where machines can learn by experience and acquire skills without human involvement. Deep learning is a subset of machine learning where artificial neural networks, algorithms inspired by the human brain, learn from large amounts of data.

To meet the demands that are created by burgeoning industries and digitalisation of existing industries, there is need for a proactive and flexible approach to drive development over the few coming years. These shifting trends demand investment in development of skills and increase in AI talents in Mauritius spanning across university students, existing employees, unemployed youth and the society at large. The ‘Mauritius Artificial Strategy 2018’ has highlighted that the lack of talent and qualified workers in Mauritius is a deterrent to the implementation of AI across business operations.

Hence, in line with the need to build local capacity in AI, UoM solicited the services of Dr. Willie Brink, to train the 30 participants. Students with backgrounds in IT/Mathematics/Engineering, having followed this course, would be able to work in all the areas requiring deep analysis and evaluation of data (such as classification and clustering). These students can work in IT industries, banking and finance, among others. Academic staff competent in Deep Learning can in turn integrate some aspects of Deep Learning in modules as well as act as resource persons locally.

Definition and Applications of Deep Learning (DL)

Artificial intelligence is a data-driven technology that is both powering autonomous machines and augmenting the flow of information and analysis for human workers. As machine learning evolves, workers must learn to adjust in much the same way as adapting to a new tool or software service. DL is a subset of machine learning where artificial neural networks, algorithms inspired by the human brain, learn from data. Also known as deep neural learning or deep neural network, Deep Learning method are based on learning data representations, as opposed to task-specific algorithms.

Deep Learning is required in many fields and to build smart applications. For example Google's search engine, voice recognition system and self-driving cars all rely heavily on deep learning. They have used deep learning networks to build a program that picks out an attractive still from a YouTube video to use as a thumbnail.

Deep learning is a novel and complex area and requires expert training. The very first step is to understand the foundations of DL and gain hands-on experience from experts.

The Human Resource Development Council in collaboration with the Careers Guidance Service is organising three half-day workshops intended for Rectors from both public and private secondary schools in order to sensitise them on the use of the Career Guidance Toolkit, which has been developed by the HRDC with the support of the Careers Guidance Service and a resource person from Curtin University, Mauritius.

The workshops will be held as follows:

Date:  28th, 29th, 30th September 2020

Time:  09 30 hrs – 11 30 hrs

Venue:  HRDC Lecture Theatre, 4th Floor, NG Tower, Cybercity, Ebène

The Career Guidance Toolkit is an essential tool to support Senior Educators in the planning of their career guidance programme, and will help better prepare them in providing career education and information to their students.

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Dear Trainees, Trainers, Mentors and Training Providers,

As you are aware, we are going through an unprecedented period as the country is locked-down since the 20th of March 2020 and the confinement period has been extended till 15th April 2020.

In this context, we would like to inform all trainees currently under the NSDP/GTES that our officers are working from home and that:

1. Needful is being done for the payment of stipend for the period ending 19th March 2020, as soon as possible;
2. For trainees that are on training programmes which are still on-going after 20th of March 2020, they would also be paid their stipend covering the period of lockdown/confinement, from 20th March 2020 to 15th April 2020, or any further effective date as per policy to be adopted by the HRDC.

We will communicate to you, once the payment of stipend is finalized.

We thank you for your understanding.

Stay home and be safe.

HRDC

3rd April 2020

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The HRDC is organising a three-day training programme on Careers Education, Information, Advice, Management and Guidance for a third batch of 80 Senior Educators from public and private secondary schools. The training will be held as follows:

Dates    11th - 13th December 2019

Time      09 00 hrs – 14 30 hrs

Venue   Conference Hall, Cyber Tower 1, Ebène

Initially some 160 Senior Educators were trained in 2 batches of 80 in October 2017 and October 2018.

The objective of this training programme is to empower the senior educators to provide careers education and career management information to their students. The HRDC in collaboration with the Career Guidance Services is currently developing a toolkit to support senior educators in the development of a career guidance plan for the year. This toolkit will be used during the workshop to familiarise the participants with the exercises and be a basis to assist senior educators mount career-related activities at the level of schools. This will also be an opportunity for them to customise a career guidance plan for their own schools targeted to different levels of students

The field of artificial intelligence is essentially when machines can do tasks that typically require human intelligence. It encompasses machine learning, where machines can learn by experience and acquire skills without human involvement.

To meet the demands that are created by burgeoning industries and digitalisation of existing industries, there is need for a proactive and flexible approach to drive development over the few coming years. These shifting trends demand investment in development of skills and increase in AI talents in Mauritius spanning across university students, existing employees, unemployed youth and the society at large. The ‘Mauritius Artificial Strategy 2018’ has highlighted that the lack of talent and qualified workers in Mauritius is a deterrent to the implementation of AI across business operations.

In view of providing practical insights on the implementation of artificial intelligence, the HRDC is organising a public talk which will be delivered by Dr. Willie Brink, an expert from South Africa. The talk is scheduled as follows:

Date      Thursday 12 December 2019

Time      14:30 hrs

Venue   4th Floor, HRDC Lecture Theatre, NG Tower, Ebène

About the Trainer

Dr. Willie Brink is a Senior Lecturer and Division Head of Applied Mathematics in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

His research interests fall mainly in the broader fields of computer vision and machine learning. He has worked on multi-view geometry for 3D reconstruction, visual odometry, recognition and tracking, probabilistic graphical models and deep learning. He has recently taken an interest in visual knowledge representation and visual grounding of natural language.

He has extensive experience in deep learning and is one of the co-founders and one of the organisers of the Indaba Deep Learning which runs each year in Africa. The Indaba Deep Learning groups around 600 attendees and some 50 trainers in the field of Machine Learning/Deep Learning.

The HRDC is organising a working session for unemployed graduates to raise awareness on the functioning and benefits of the Graduate Training for Employment Scheme (GTES).

The working session will offer participants the opportunity to interact with an industry expert and gain real-life insights into the world of work which will help them boost their employability.

Participants will also be able to interact with a graduate trainee and learn from his/her training and placement experiences under the GTES

The working session will be held as follows:

Date:     Thursday 21 November 2019

Time:    09 00 hrs - 11:30 hrs

Venue: 4th Floor, HRDC Lecture Theatre, NG Tower, Ebène

The programme also comprises 2 certifications namely:

• Pre-training certification: AZ-900 Azure Exam Prep: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals; and
• Post-training certification: AI-100 Designing and Implementing an Azure AI Solution.

Aims and objectives of the AI Masterclass Programme

The AI Masterclass programme is expected to build internal capacity of enterprises to embrace AI within all areas of their organisations and to understand the strategic implications of AI within a new digital ecosystem. After completion of the training, the participants are expected to have the desired skillsets to devise and implement appropriate AI strategies for enterprises embracing cloud and AI.

Expected outcomes

The AI Masterclass programme will create a talent pool of AI-ready programmers with industry certifications for industry partners with cloud transition and AI adoption strategies.

The programme is expected to

• accelerate cloud transition and AI adoption strategies;
• consolidate the value-add of Mauritius as a prime destination of investment, employment, outsourcing;
• create platforms for collaboration (crowdfunding, national competitions, entrepreneurship);
• develop required competencies for Fintech careers;
• ensure employee retention through skills upliftment (vertical and horizontal movement); and
• create industry certified AI talent pool for Mauritius to become a gateway for Africa.

The Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) is organising a ceremony to launch the training programme “Advanced Training in Fund Administration / Accounting” which will be run under the Graduate Training for Employment Scheme (GTES) and the Sectoral Skills Development Scheme (SSDS).

The launch event will be held as follows:

Date      Thursday 29 August 2019

Time      09 15 hrs

Venue   HRDC Lecture Theatre, 4th Floor, NG Tower, Cybercity, Ebène

The training programme under both the GTES and the SSDS is a collaborative initiative with Global Finance Mauritius. Under the SSDS, some 40 employees from participating enterprises will benefit from this training. Under the GTES, seven enterprises are participating where 38 unemployed graduates will be trained and ultimately employed.