The picture below is the project model and will be broadly divided into nine activities spread across the given duration. The following activities have been proposed:
Activity 1: Project Management/Administration
Objectives: To administer and manage the project. Details: The project management consists of personnel from both countries responsible for the management and administration including the coordination, compilation and procurement. Although the list of equipment has been outlined in the respective activities, the procurement will begin right after the signing of the contract document for the whole activities. Participants: This will include two administrative staff (one each for Bhutan and Lao) to manage and administer the execution of the project. In addition, two account staff will be available to support the financial aspect of the project.
Activity 2: Official Opening
Objectives: To create awareness, promote and share information about the project. Details: It will be a daylong event with an opening ceremony in the morning and conference in the afternoon. The top management level officials will be invited along with other external members either through face to face or online. Two countries will be connected through online for the presentations and interactions. Program for this activity will be registration, welcome remarks, and opening remarks from both countries and finally presentation either through online or face-to-face. Participants: As many participants as possible will be invited either through online or face to face from within and outside the country. Read more >
Activity 3: Train the Trainers - Cisco Certified Network Associate course
Objectives: To equip focal IT Engineers with the experiences and skills related to fundamentals of networking, network access and IP services. Durations: 15 days. However, this will be divided into three parts with five day each spread across three to four months. After completion of every part, they will be required to practice and submit assignments or any other related activities in the timely manner. Failure to do so will result in the disqualification from the rest of the training. Details: This training has to be face to face as all participants may not have sufficient knowledge and experience to handle the course contents if they are required to be attended online. At the moment, travelling to an external country is not possible. All host country’s individual participants willbe invited to the central location with the standard set of precautions in place. The face to face program will provide a platform to discuss and solve issues among the participants. This will be an advanced level training conducted by the resource person from Malaysia. After the training, these participants will participate in the training of the target group 2 and group 3 participants. This program will cover global Cisco standard CCNAs routing and switching. It will be “Train the Trainers” (TTT) model for knowledge transfer and to ensure long-term sustainability. They will be provided with the option for the certification (for CCNA or CyberOps), so that they will be able to train others during and after this project period. Participants: Target group 1, total of 24 participants (12 from Bhutan and 12 from Lao)Read more >
Activity 4: Train the Trainers - CyberOps Associate course
Objectives: To enhance IT engineers’ skills to secure, detect, protect and reduce their data, network and devices from the threat and be able to monitor security threats all the time. Duration: 8 days Details: Training will be conducted fully online as participants would have already completed in-depth skills requirement for this training in the Activity 3 and 4. Main purpose is to help participants to be able to maintain the integrity of an organization’s data, secure their own network and be able to continuously monitor the network for any security breaches and be able to develop the security protocols to prevent potential threats. They will be provided with the option for the certification, so that they will be able to train others during and after this project period.This global Cisco standard training will be resourced from Malaysia through online. Participants: Target group 1 - 24 (12 Bhutanese and 12 Laos)
Activity 5/6: Campus Network and Security in Bhutan and Lao
Objectives: To equip participants to design, develop and configure the robust and stable campus networks that can be scaled with security features in place. Furthermore, they should be able to develop appropriate measures to identify vulnerabilities of the networks/devices, protect and reduce the potential threats to their network. Duration: 5 days Details: Workshop requires participants with the intermediate level of knowledge in the system and network. It will focus on campus network and security along with configuration and installation of the WiFi equipmentand equip them to manage and administer their own network. This training will be resourced by the two local experts to maintain the sustainability of the program. All participants will be invited to one central location in the respective host country. During / after the training, participants will be provided with the wireless equipment so that they will be able to configure and install it in their local campus network. Moreover, this will also help them to expand their network and improve their experience in handling the real time issues. The contents of the workshop will be on the hardening of DNS, accessing, firewall, anti-virus, securing wireless network, etc. After the training, they will be expected to train their own staff in their organization. Participants: Target group 2 - 60 (30 Bhutanese and 30 Laos) - University faculty and ICT professionals with at least intermediate level of knowledge and skills on networking and systems.
Activity 7/8: IT Essential in Bhutan and Lao
Objectives: To enable the participants to operate office management packages, use cloud, manage simple networking and install and troubleshoot their own device (computers and laptops). Details: Workshop mainly focuses on participants with little or without basic skills in ICT. It will cover teachers and support staff and other participants from the selected schools, colleges and community if any. They will be invited to the central location for the face-to-face training in their respective host country. IT Essential aims to improve their Digital Literacyto equip them with fundamentals of ICT for use at the workplace and for their basic activities. This workshop will focus on the use of office management packages, usage of available cloud, user level security (firewall and antivirus on their computer), troubleshooting and connecting to either LAN or WiFi. Participants: Target group 3 - 60 (30 Bhutanese, 30 Laos)
Activity 9: Platform for interaction between Two Countries
Objectives: To interact and share the expertise and experience between the two countries to bridge the digital divide of the experts. This will also make best use of individual countries' NRENs and create awareness on the technology that will further develop the human capacity. Details: This platform will be for the contents repository of the Technology that can be shared / exchanged through the usage of NRENs in the individual countries. This repository will be for the information sharing purpose. It will consist of contents that can be developed by any experts within Bhutan and Laos, however, participants will be encouraged to contribute so that sustenance will be maintained. The contents could be a presentation, lecture session or any other related topics. The LERNET will provide space for this platform and will be maintained by identified members (possibly one each male and female) from two countries to ensure its sustainability and will be constantly updated to have continuous flow of expertise exchange between the two countries. Since all the platforms and activities are handled by Lao, the financial part will be fully transferred to them. Contents/presentations: 15 Contents (4 from Lao, 4 from Bhutan and rest could be jointly developed or other Colleges/ Organizations. However, it will not be restricted to just fifteen, the acceptance of contents will continue as long as experts or participants are willing to share. Participants: As many as possible. Sessions may be provided to the students as well.