A guest post by David Chaney, SURF Trustee, Certified Public Accountant and QuickBooks instructor.
In September, for the second year in a row, Survivors Fund (SURF) partnered with the Education Into Employment program of AERG (Student’s Association of Genocide Survivors) to host a QuickBooks training course for university students in Rwanda.
The three day course was hosted by the Kigali School of Finance and Banking from September 24-26.
Twenty-one students participated in the 12-hour course and learned such topics as installing the program, creating new companies, entering banking transactions, recording customer and vendor invoices, setting up inventory, recording fixed assets and depreciation, and how to account and pay for the VAT. At the end of course, each student received a certificate of completion which they can then use to bolster their CV when they are searching for employment.
Additionally, this programme has a goal of training future instructors who can then teach the program to other students without the need of a visiting instructor. To this end, a few of the participants were retaking the course from the previous class in November 2011. Based upon the progress made in the current class, this goal is within reach and the programme can be expanded to more frequent classes and classes outside of Kigali.
The demand for experienced QuickBooks users in Rwanda at the current time is tremendous. The economy is expanding at a rapid rate and QuickBooks is the number one accounting programme used by small businesses due to its low cost and ease of use.
University graduates in Rwanda have a difficult time finding employment because of too few positions. QuickBooks experience is a skill that will help set these students apart from their peers and provide a path to professional employment.
David travelled to Rwanda to undertake the training on a pro bono basis, as part of SURF’s ongoing capacity building of our partner organisations.
