Training of engineering students through district-focused internship attachments

Rural areas of Uganda have been experiencing a shortage of adequately trained district technical staff. Many graduate engineers are unwilling to offer their services to the rural areas. Furthermore, those that eventually go to the rural areas are ill prepared and are not readily accepted by the district staff. This has resulted in the inadequate capacity for the technical management of the district’s needs. In order to address this situation, Makerere University with support of Rochfeller Foundation initiated a Pilot Project. Eleven civil engineering students were trained in a pilot district for a period of seven weeks. The training was done on a week rotational basis around the different departments of the district of local government. This paper describes the development of the pilot project and the experience of the students, the districts and staff of Makerere together with the lessons learned and the way forward.