GDIRST Institute, a telecommunications consultancy firm has schooled non-technical professionals on telecommunications systems as part of efforts to upgrade their skills and understanding of the industry.

The training programme among others, aimed at equipping media professionals and journalists in their reportage on telecommunication related issues, making it easy to start a story and progress through it logically to accurately educate and inform audiences.

The five-day training course was organised for people with no or little knowledge in the telecommunications industry and included journalists, business personalities, and legal practitioners among others.

The participants were taken through series of telecommunication essentials on topics such as communication fundamentals, data networking, essentials of next-generation networks, telecommunications regulations, emerging technologies and introduction to data science among others.

Mr Roland Yaw Kudozia, the Acting President of GDIRST Institute and Senior Consultant said 14 non-technical professionals from various fields had benefitted from the training and had shown a great level of understanding.

He said the objective of the programme had been achieved, looking at the level of interaction that went on in the class between the facilitators and the learners.

Mr Kudozia said it was expected of the participants, especially those from the media to start reporting and interacting with telecommunications industry players and break the jargons of the industry down to the understanding of the audience.

He said the Institute would in the coming year organise similar trainings for other professionals to increase their knowledge and understanding in the telecommunication industry.

He said the Institute would also be organising data science, coding and programming trainings for schools as well as embark on mobile Information Technology Communication (ICT) programmes for schools without ICT Teachers.

Mr Samuel Amassah, a private businessman and a participant said he came into the training programme without any knowledge of the industry but could now boast of having a level of understanding for data science and ‘Over The Top Applications’ among many other lessons.

He said: “I don’t want this course to go down into the drain and so I want to sit and analyse, to see what I can do with it,” adding that, data science was a particular area to be looked at, to develop a business concept.

Ms Vivian Chizoba Onyeka, a student-journalist at the Ghana Institute of Journalism said participating in the programme had been refreshing and that she had learnt a lot of things that would assist her deliver in the media industry, including ‘Internet of Things’ and the future of ‘Smart City’.

She said other lessons such as data protection had opened her understanding, adding that “I now know I have right over my data and I can sue some people for bridging my data privacy”.