Mauritania
Academy Profile
ENA
Local Academy
Established February, 2003
L’Ecole Nationale d’Administration de Nouakchott (ENA) is a public institution created in 1966 and reorganized in May of 1982 to serve primarily as a training center for government workers, but also has centers for documentation and research, as well as a language lab. There are 16 permanent faculty members, offering courses in Computer Science, Management, Public Finance and Accounting, Law and Administration, and Languages (English, Arabic and French). Just fewer than 1000 students take courses at ENA each year.
The Cisco Networking Academy at L’Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA) in Nouakchott, Mauritania, was established in February of 2003, with a very unique focus. The inception of this local Academy was primarily proposed by the Government of Mauritania. In September 2000, in an effort to join the technological revolution that had been accelerating globally, the Government of Mauritania created a new department that would be in charge of the promotion and development of technological advancement that had so visibly been changing the world around them, and named it DFRVT (La Direction de la Formation, de la Recherche et de la Veille Technologique). This department, under the direction of the Secretary of New Technologies, collaborated with ENA to implement a vision; that of a program that would train government and private sector workers in IT, specifically dealing with networks. The Cisco Networking Academy was the perfect answer to such a vision. The DFRVT and ENA felt that the Program would provide their country with the qualified candidates who would be instrumental in carrying out their commitment towards technological advancement.
Although the Academy would be geared more towards training government employees, 2 to 3 ENA students would also qualify to join the Program during each offered session. In order to encourage more females to participate in the Program, ENA has started an awareness raising campaign to invite females to play a vital role in the efforts to advance technology. Letters are sent home before each Academy session giving females top priority to join the Program, also indicating that they would be granted a 50% reduction in tuition. ENA advertises through posters and flyers that they give females top priority to join their Cisco courses. Their campaign proved effective when the majority of their second Academy session was comprised of females.
ENA has a computer room with 11 PCs and 64KB Internet connection at the disposal of the Academy students.