Goals and activities for Projekt elstudenter

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1. Introducion

This is a space for discussions and decisions about activities for the implementation of "Projekt elstudenter", a project between the Swedish company MicroSupport and the Mocambican company Grupo Chicomo.

The main idea of the project is to enable cooperation as well as knowledge and skill transfer between Sweden and Mocambique in the sector practical vocational training. The target group consists of students in the age span 18-21 years and older, studying to be electricians with specialization in electricity or electronics.

The training concept is "Learning by doing" through local production and use of elektronic training equipment, computer- and webbased instructions and learning packages and activities leading to authorization and preparing for self employment.

Initially is described the process during the 20:th of April 2009 to the 5:th of May 2009 when the responsibility for the future management of the project, production organization and regional marketing was handed over to the cooperation company in Mocambique, Grupo Chicomo.

This was done after development of computer based as well as paper based step-by-step work instructions in Potuguese, sending tools and material for fabrication of the "Basic unit 2000" as an introduction to the production of electronic training equipment and possibly also development of locally adapted traning equipment and course material.

The start of the production was followed up with a Pilot Study where the function of the developed instruction material was tested at the Industrial Intitute in Beira. A second production fase will include even the Industrial Institutes in Maputo and in Boane.

In Maputo it is planned that the assembling of the basic units will be done as a kind of practical work for some students, with beginning in August 2009, after more theoretical studies. How and when the assembling work will be organized in Beira and Matola is not yet decided. In this writing moment, the new material is not yet cleared at the customs in Maputo.

As a member of the project group you are invited to comment the content of every part of this text to make it to a tool for activities. Just click on "comments" and write!

2. How we are learning by doing ourselves

This presentation gives a hint of how you can use a digital material for learning by doing. It is easy and cheap to use pictures, even film clips and animations and to have a dialogue between creator and all readers. It is possible to correct the presentation until it is totally clear and in a form that everyone can agree on. It is also easy to make digital copies and print outs if needed.

In this case the whole thing is about metalearning, that will say learning about learning and how to organize learning in an efficient way with the help of indicators and administrative methods.

The training equipment is the set up of indicators which in the end, when well elaborated and defined, can be assembled to a logical framework approach or at least to a flow chart of goals and activities, related to a time shedule, like in the Outlook diary.

As you see, you can also use a built in translator to read the material in your own language, whichever it happens to be.

3. Background

Projekt El-studenter is a 3 years joint venture project between MicroSupport in Sweden and Grupo Chicomo in Mocambique, with a limited financial support from the Swedish governmental organization for business development, Nutek. The cooperating companies get a part of their expenses for development of training material, tools, staff training and business development refunded if they reach the project goals indicated in the project plan.

The project started 2006-12-01 and will close 2009-12-31. Some months before closing, a final report has to be written by the involved companies. The result of the project will be followed up in Mocambique by a representative from Nutek. After that a decision will be taken by Nutek about a final refund of maximum 24% of the total costs.

The project goals described in the project plan are to organize assembling of training equipment and production of written training material for students in the area electricity/electronics. Initially the products will be sold at an already established European market, but in the long run the market is planned to be local as well as regional and international.

The project activities are to plan localities and organize tools and material flow, employ staff, develop production instructions in Portuguese, start up the production, handle the quality control, deliver assembled units to Sweden, receive payment at delivery and pay staff for work. The responible for this activities in Mocambique is Edgar Baloi at Grupo Chicomo.

1 person will organize the activities and the business cooperation. 5 persons will work with assemling. In this group, someone will be responsible for work routines and development of production methods and new products as well as personal staff training and local user support. This person, an experienced technician, might get some training at the MicroSupport factory in Sweden.

1 person will develop production instructions and instruction methods for the assembling work and course material in Portuguese, try out methods for Internet supported distance learning by doing and quality control online.

The project focuses much on knowledge development and it has taken place as experience in practical work with the business introduction. A pilot project shows that it is possible to produce training material as planned and that there are some administrative and practical problems that has to and could be resolved.

The project activities are supposed to end up in an ordinary production organization within half a year and it is time to plan for the business after the end of the project. In order to do that and in order to prepare the material for the final report, staff from Grupo Chicomo and MicroSupport met a couple of weeks in April/May 2009.

The main purpose is to unify the the future visions for business communication, to meet local people and authorities important for the business development, to map out the recent business situation and to find possible new markets. Of course it is very important in this situation to decide exactly who is going to do what and when and which results that are required to go into a sucessfull business.

4. MicroSupport and Grupo Chicomo in Mocambique

From the 21:th of April to the 4:th of May 2009, staff from MicroSupport and from Grupo Chicomo met and planned together for the future. This work was an activity in the project, with a limited start and stop date.

The results were:
1. A big number of specified part goals and activities, formulated in a way, so that their fullfillment indicates the future progress of the project.
2. A better overview of the local situation
3. A better understanding between the two cooperating companies.

FROM SWEDEN TO MOCAMBIQUE

Monday 20 of April 2009
Leaving Arlanda in the evening.

Tuesday 30 of April 2009
Arriving at Maputo

5 DAYS IN MAPUTO

Wednesday 22 of April 2009:
09.00 meeting Gilberto Antonio Botas at The Ministry of Education.
Summary of discussion after the visit
Summary of the Project Description
About final report to Nutek
14.00 meeting with Alberto Eugénio Banze at Instituto Industrial

Thursday 23 of April 2009
09.15 Meeting with Edgar about the Execution plan.
14.00 Meeting with staff at Industrial Institute

Friday 24 of April 2009
09.00 Meeting with Edgar, further discussions about the execution plan
12.00 Visit to UPE central administration in central town and the institution in Jangeni, the teachers university, where Prof. D. Urânio (Mobile nr 82-3818430) is working with pedagogic training in the area electronic/electricity. He has earlier been presented to the production instructions in portuguese developed by MicroSupport, He was not present personally at the time, but we have possibilities to meet him later on. At the same part of the university are running to projects about distance learning as well, one governmental and one dutch.

Saturday 25 of April 2009
13.00 lunch visit at Manuel & Feodosia Ferrão, Rua Vladimir Lenin 3036 in Bairro Coop, Maputo.

Sunday 26 of April 2009

12.00 Mussa Suale, 828648840 (826006194) was contacted after half a year without any contact. I informed him that we will be in Beira from around 12.30 tomorrow. We decided that we will meet in Beira tomorrow after 16.00, he, I, D.G. Glenn Johansson and Sales Manager for MicroSupport L-E Rådemo. Sr Mussa is available all the afternoon and evening for us.

12.30 Edgar Baloy was contacted about the plans to go to Beira tomorrow on monday and to visit the Training institution adjacent to Mozal, the aluminium factory.
We got an SMS from Mr Baloi yesterday: ”Unfortuntely I will not be able to go because I have a presentation to do on monday afternoon in Maputo and another on thursday morning in Johannesburg”. Since both of the places are possible production partners it is important for Mr. Baloi to visit and have a good contact with these institutions, if he wants to be the business coordinator for MicroSupport, but it is not necessary to do the visits togehter with us from MicroSupport in Sweden as initially planned.

3 DAYS IN BEIRA

Monday 27 of April 2009
To Beira.
Meeting with the Director of the Industrial Institute in Beira, Maria Bernadete Cipriano and the Directors for the departments of electricity and electronics Mussa Suale.

Tuesday 28 of April 2009
Study visit at the brewery in Beira, CDM.
Summing up meeting with the Director of the Industrial Institute
”After work” meeting

Wednesday 29 of April 2009
Final contact with the responsible for the department of electronics.
Back to Maputo.

4 MORE DAYS IN MAPUTO

Thursday 30 of April 2009
To Instituto Industrial e Comercial Armando Emilio Guebuza, the training institution founded by Mozal, the aluminium factory in Matola and equipped with teachers by the Ministry of Education.
Passing by the teachers training institution for the Matola Indutrial Training Centre, called Instituto Superior Dom Busco
Guide Alexandre at Grupo Chicomo.

Friday 1 of May 2009
Meeting with Edgar Baloi 10.00. Steering document overhanded to Edgar. Edgar promised to add some more detailes to his initial Executive Summary.

Dinner 20.00 with more discussions.

The role of the Ministry of Education was discussed, that will say which help we want from the ministry. The most important is to get help with the introduction of certification of electricians. Another thing is help to cooperate with the Pirep project and the teachers training at Instituto Superior Dom Busco, which train teachers for work at Instituto Industrial e Comercial Armando Emilio Guebuza. A third thing is to give a word for cooperation with existing e-learning projects at UP, the pedagogic university and the network for IT-introduction in Mocabique which have centers at all places in the country where there are technical instiutes.

The roles of the three contacted Industrial Institutes was also discussed. Edgar proposed that the now actual assembling work will be divided into three parts. In this way we can receive the best feedback on the production instructions. We need more feedback on the digital version. In the future it was also discussed that it is possible to specialize cooperation with the institutes, for example certification and close industry cooperation at Instituto Industrial e Comercial Armando Emilio Guebuza in Matola, development of training material, new products and laboratory cards, distance supervision and qualty control via Internet at the Industria Institute in Beira and incorporation of assembling work and maintenance in the pratic exprience period for the students at the Industrial Instiute in Maputo under supervision of teachers there, might be as a part of self employment training: To educate people to start their own companies and use their skills as self employed entrepreneurs.

An Internet communicy for cooperation between all the technical institutes in Mocambique could be created as well, in collaboration with the governmental effort to introduce the use of Internet all over the country. Students could be given access to the local IT-centers already existing, if there is not enough possibilities at their schools.

Saturday 2 of May 2009
Internal discussion. Updating of working documents.

Sunday 3 of May 2009

FROM MOCAMBIQUE TO SWEDEN

Monday 4 of May 2009
Departure from Mocambique

Tuesday 5 of April 2009
Arrival in Sweden

5. Management reflections

What is MBO?

Management by objectives (MBO) is a systematic and organized approach that allows management to focus on achievable goals and to attain the best possible results from available resources.

It aims to increase organizational performance by aligning goals and subordinate objectives throughout the organization. Ideally, employees get strong input to identify their objectives, time lines for completion, etc. MBO includes ongoing tracking and feedback in the process to reach objectives.

Management by Objectives (MBO) was first outlined by Peter Drucker in 1954 in his book 'The Practice of Management'. In the 90s, Peter Drucker himself decreased the significance of this organization management method, when he said: "It's just another tool. It is not the great cure for management inefficiency... Management by Objectives works if you know the objectives, 90% of the time you don't."

From MBO (Management by Objectives) to LFA (Logical Framework Approach)

The objectives and activities has always had a central role in project management. What you want to achieve and what you do to manage your goals. As long as you work alone, you can mix it all up, but in cooperation with other people and organizations, you have to communicate what you want, if you want others to do it with a result that you want and perhaps also in your way. You express goals and methods.

You express what you want, when you want things to be ready, what you want to pay for the job, who you want to be responsible and so on. All this can be arranged in systematic plans where activities and deadlines are expressed in a network. You call it Network Planning. The method was innovated during the construction of the first nuclear submarine. It has been adopted in most of all complicated projects since then.

Focusing on objectives gives the freedom for all involved to manage their activities in their own way. It is a result oriented management method. But the manager needs to formulate well defined goals and follow them up. It is not that easy. The taxonomy to write goals has been developed by Bloom and Mager has defined more in detail how to express goals to make them functional.

SMART GOALS ARE:

Specific= Significant, Stretching, Simple
Measurable= Meaningful, Motivational, Manageable
Attainable= Appropriate, Achievable, Agreed, Assignable, Actionable, Action-oriented, Ambitious
Relevant= Realistic, Results/Results-focused/Results-oriented, Resourced, Rewarding
Time-bound= Time framed, Timed, Time-based, Timeboxed, Timely, Timebound, Time-Specific, Timetabled, Trackable, Tangible

The essence of MBO, management by objectives, is participative goal setting, choosing course of actions and decision making. An important part of the MBO is the measurement and the comparison of the employee’s actual performance with the standards set. Ideally, when employees themselves have been involved with the goal setting and the choosing the course of action to be followed by them, they are more likely to fulfill their responsibilities.

The Logical Framework Approach is a method to construct goal networks, where you can be rather sure of to reach many different goals, if you just reach some well defined goals, called indicators. It simplifies the follow up work. The crucial point is not only to formulate main goals, but also to look at the relations between goals at the same hierarchic levels.

The Apprechiative Incentive is a method where you look more for possibilities than problems. You look for what already functions and try to utilize this for further development. This method was combined with Logical Framework Approach to avoid a too big problem focus and too much change for nothing.

The constructivism is based on the same philosophy, to start from that specific knowledge and experience you have and go further to the skill and knowledge you need from that point.
In our project, we need to look for such experience and adapt the concept we have developed as well as production and lerning methods to the individual and local reality.

Finally, a phase oriented approach can be helpful. Instead of doing everything at the same time, it is possible to divide the work into smaller parts, functioning separately and together. In that way you can test strategies in one phase for the next one. In our case we started to produce a smaller amount of units. We called it a pilot project.

An example to illustrate the idea better: If you want to build 15 houses and have a limited amount of money, it is better to build them one by one or maybe five by five, than to build them all at the same time and in the end find that there is a lack of money for the roofs. Without roofs no house will function. A smaller number of houses with roofs will at least function even if some houses never were constructed according to the initial plan.

It is also easier to change the plans, adapt to changed circumstances and incorporate new ideas during the project with a phase oriented process and it is possible to learn how to do the work better from one phase to the other. It is the basics in Learning by doing, the concept we are working with.

6. Pedagogic reflections

(Erik Hoffer 1973, Reflections on the Human Condition
ISBN 1-933435-14-3)

To "produce" learners, learning societies and organizations is the over all objective, since without learners there is no use for any teaching material. But dynamic teaching material can stimulate people to be good learners just when they need to know.

One of the aims with the ”Project Elstudenter” is to try out ways of using digitalized teaching and training material and the optimal use of pictures and speach in an instruction situation, just when skill and knowledge is needed for practical work, - just like any tool.

Printed manuals can be illustrated with color photos and drawings step by step and explanations accompaning every picture. It is not a bad alternative, if everything is explained in a good pedagogic way. Monthly computer magazines are often designed to help the readers to learn new applications and to manage their computer problems in an easy and pedagogic way. It is often written how long time it will take to learn something new and exactly what you will learn, when you follow the given instructions. Often you also get links directly to Internet in the text.

The learning is problem based. An example could be how you store all your e-mails in outlook on a DVD or how you make a copy of a music CD that is not directly possible to copy.

Completely digital material, showed on a screen, can offer photos, film clips, animations and speach, which can explain not only situations but also movements, without interuptions, where the instructed has to fill in with own fantasy. Speach and knee controls can also leave the instructed persons hands free, the eyes more concentrated on the work area and the instruction sequenses exactly syncronized with the individual work.

Model learning can take place, that will say the instructed person can follow something that happens on the screen and do exactly the same. The understanding will be a mixture of what is explained and which associations and conclusions the instructed make, based on earlier personal experience and the experience of doing in the moment. It is the basics in constructivism, which more and more replaces the ideas in cognitivism and the pedagogic ideas before that in behaviorism.

Digital material has also the advantage of beeing easily communicated even via Internet. This of course demands a good access of Internet and a general good knowledge about working with computers and the Internet. This is for the moment not the case, but development in this are goes fast and is priorated by the government.

Still, it is not absolutely clear how Internet should be used in the most efficient way and in every especial situation, in this case for practical on the job training.

Course Portals (LMS-systems) have been introduced, mainly for formal learning. Since 80-90% of all learning for direct competens development is practical training, the traditional LMS can only give a limited support in the employeds competence development, since the learning is isolated as an activity separated from the work.

Nowadays Learning Portals have grown more popular for on the job training. The Learning Portal supports learning ”just in time” integrated with the work and exactly when the skill is needed, (learning on demand). It is easier to learn from small modules in an actual situation and in communication and cooperation with collegues (e-lerning 2.0). The Learning Portal focus on targets and give direct help and instructions to manage the work. Compare with Help and Assistants in computer software!

You can search for information at the intra network.
It supports the job and special moments of the job.
It shorten the time to knowledge and competens using learning modueles.
It can be used to build basic know how, support in special work situations and to spread experience. The information can be completed and developed online by the users.
The evaluation of he content can be done by the users.
These are funcions already used in tools like Microsoft Sharepoint.
More information: Building a Learning Portal at e-learning weekly and Using Sharepoint at Tony Karrers blog.

The trend nowadays is from the central catalouge and reports, categorizing a LMS, to PLE:s, Personal Learning Environments.

Instruction films on YouTube or short instruction for example in Captivate can be very useful alternatives. Links to special parts in the manual are also important, as well as discussion forum, wikis and to let the employed upload films and short instuction sequenses themselves. The formal learning is not abandonned but should be connected to learning modules for actual targets.

“Many of the latest LMS and e-learning efforts have driven learners into learning silos, isolating them from their peers. We need to build the collaborative aspect of learning back into these experiences if we’re going to achieve the collective outcomes we want.” (Bob Mosher, IBM)

7. Contacts - names and addresses from visit in Mocambique 21 Apr- 4 May 2009

Grupo Chicomo in Maputo






















Edgar Baloi

Director
Grupo Chicomo
699, Av. Base N'Tchinga
Maputo, Mozambique
Cell: +258844849650
Fax: +25821419004
Email: ebaloi@chicomo.com; vakavaloi@gmail.com
Skype name: edgarbaloi
Life style group


























Alexandre, Adm. at Grupo Chicomo +258 823918080

Ministry of Education, Vocational and Technical Education
























Gilberto Antero Botas, National Director
gilberto.botas@mec.gov.mz +258 21490192 +258 823150980




















Edgar Baloi,Gilberto Botas, Glenn Johansson and Lars-Erik Rådemo at the Ministry of Education, discussing training of electricians.


The Industrial Institute in Maputo





















Alberto Eugénio Banze, Director, +258826521090, +25821440113 Fax +25821415244












Discussing how to participate in the "Projekt Elstudenter"
Alberto Eugénio Banze
Antony Tembe, chef electronics +258825727113
Dinis Timane, chef informatics and IT electronics +258823831300
Paulo Santiago dir. pedagogics +258824621560


The Swedish School in Maputo















Headmaster at the Swedish School in Maputo
Daniel Broman, skandinaviskaskolan@skandskol.com, +258-82-5725297

Industrial Institute in Beira
























Maria Bernadete Cipriano Director of the Industrial Institute in Beira +258824392770
mariabernadete02@yahoo.com.br

























Mussa Suale
mussasuale@yahoo.com.br
mussasuale@hotmail.com
+258 828648840
+258 847735059


In the electronic lab
















Glenn and Mussa


















Lars-Erik, Glenn, Mussa and ...























Mario Jouce Tenesse, Director Electricidade
mariojoucetenesse@yahoo.co.br
+258 825214874
+258 844078602























Manuel Caliane
cmanuelcaliane@yahoo.co.br
+258 821354800























Silva, Dir Industry School (15-17 years old students)


























Chef at the mechanic workshop with a broken sparepart that he cannot find in Mocambique. Manintenance is a general problem.




















English speaking student at the only functioning machine of ten























Teacher


The beer factory in Beira










































Louis Palege, Plant manager
luis.palege@mz.sabmillet.com
+258 825167813
+258 843231370


























Sales Manager


After work in Beira






















Mussa Suale and Maria Bernadete Cipriano





















Louis Palege and Manuel Caliane at Mira Mar























Mira Mar by night



















Staff from the beer factory, the industrial institute and MicroSupport testing the products together

The Industrial Institute in Matola






















General e-mail address to the Institute iicaeg@tdm.co.mz

Staff:
Director Manuel Quissico, mquissico@tdm.co.mz
Chefe da Secretaria Maria Antonieta, ajaime@tdm.co.mz
Chefe do Depto Domingos Bila, domingosbila@tdm.co.mz
Chefe do Depto Lourdes Manhica, lourdesmanhica@tdm.co.mz
Tecnico Simao Vilanculos, simaodias@tdm.co.mz
Tecnica Maria da Graca, magava@tdm.co.mz
Docente Anezio Baptista, aneziobaptista@tdm.co.mz



















Carlos Tembe, Dir Pedagogico at Mocal Industrial Institute Instituto Armando Gebosa
ctembe@tdm.co.mz was our guide.


















Department of informatics






















Dir. mechanical department




















Dom Bosco teachers training centre

Film production around the corner






















Film production in Adobe Premiere etc.
myspace.com/siderurgia
fumaosagradas.mondlane@gmail.com
Rua Matheus Sansao Mutemba 350, Maputo

From MicroSupport in Sweden






















Managing Director
Glenn Johansson glenn.johansson@microsupport.se
Sweden +46703320631; Mocambique +258 825778743
Skypename: glide1234





















Sales Manager and board member
Lars-Erik Rådemo +46705571144
konsulthuset@gmail.com (larserik.rademo@microsupport.se)


















Informations Production, Pedagogics & Management assistance
Sven Wallin +46739286390;+4659114451 (Sweden)
+258 826431941 (Mocambique)
svenigrythyttan@gmail.com
Skypename svenigrythyttan

The hotels

Hotel Cardoso in Maputo

Hotel Jardim das Velas in Beira
Kerry Jakov, Manager, +25823312209, jardimdasvelas@yahoo.com


Taxi
















Taxi Faizal, +258829925147
Taxi Marcelo, +258823249130; +258847575758;


More contacts

Prof. Dr. Uranio at – Universidade Pedagogica, UPE de Jangeni +258823818430
Transtechnica, rua 24 Julho nr 703, Maputo, computers & equipment, Swedish founder
Jan Bodemark, Alcatel Fiber Project, Beira, (office behind Capri) orbita@teledata.mz
The Air Port in Maputo: Dr Paulus Mazuh +258 825077296


Please suggest corrections/additional information in comments!

8. Letters of Intent

Letter of Intent to the Ministry of Education (DRAFT)

Microsupport (Sweden) and Grupo Chicomo (Mozambique) are willing and able to cooperate in the production of electronic equipment for educational purposes. In light of the partnership, Microsupport will outsource the assembling of said equipment to Grupo Chicomo.

Both parties have agreed to involve Mozambican-based industrial institutes in the assembling process. Part of the project will be to evaluate and improve pedagogic material that assists in the assembling and using the equipment. Another component is to provide certification of the people that are successfully trained in the assembling of the equipment. This last component was -identified in contacts with companies that mentioned the difficulty of hiring certified electricians.

The main output from this project is the empowerment of young Mozambican technicians with the necessary and demonstrable skills set to become self-employed in the field that they have chosen and able to provide services to other individuals and corporations responsibly and with accountability.

Another output will be creating the blueprint for Mozambique to become an outsourcing destination in the technological field.

As such, we would like to invite the Ministry of Education, represented by Mr. Gilberto Botas, the National Director of Technical and Vocational Training, to assist us with:
-the relationship with the Industrial Institutes
-provide links between this project and other educational projects (Worl Bank, Pirep)
-facilitate the integration of this project in schools
assist with the Ministry of Finance to achieve fiscal incentives to this project
allow us to accommodate our program to the existing curriculum and make recommendation on the matter
-together, train teachers to use the equipment produced in the country and enable them to train students on it.

The project will follow the directives of fair trade production. That means that the employer will pay decent wages and guarantees the right to join unions. Minimum health and safety as well as environmental standard must be complied with and no child or forced labour will be used.
We look forward to your feedback on the matters mentioned in this letter of intent in the hope that it meets your aspirations for the sector.

Letter of Intent between MicroSupport and Grupo Chicomo

9a. Business Plan Template

Executive Summary – Microsupport/Chicomo/MoEC Partnership

1. Introduction

2. The Partnership

3. Market Analysis
3.1 Industry Structure (Mozambique)
3.1.1 Physical Flow of Equipment
3.1.2 The End-User Market
3.1.3 Proliferation of Technical Schools
3.1.4 Purchasing Power
3.3 Potential Impact of local production

4. Production
4.1 Base Unit 2000
4.2 Microsupport Technology
4.3 Procurement

5. Strategy and Execution Plan
5.1 Project Management
5.1.1 Integrated Management
5.1.2 Choice of Manufacturing Location
5.1.3 Support from Government Institurions (CPI, MoF, MoE, MCT)
5.2 Marketing Strategy
5.2.1 Strategy
5.2.2 Distribution
5.2.3 Pricing
5.2.4 Promotion
5.2.5 P

6. Financial Plan
6.1 Cost Structure
6.1.1 Cost Structure the Base Units
6.1.2 Scaling Up Production
6.2 Financing Issues
6.2.1 Production of Base Units
6.2.2 Taxes and Tariffs
6.3 Summary of Financials
6.4 Financial Analysis

7. Management Team
7.1 Organisation Structure

9b. Executive summary for the partnership (addition to the business plan)

1. Introduction

2. The Partnership

3. Market Analysis

4. Products

4.1 Base Unit 2000
The target is to produce 200 units every year as mentioned in Letter of Intent.

4.2 Pedagogic Digital Component & Distance Learning
This is understood as computer based learning (CBL) in all forms. MicroSupport has the packages Electronic (Basic Electronics (50 tim) and Basic Digital Electronics (50 tim)) and Mecatronic (automation) are already developed. The trend is that more material will be computer based or possible to connect to computers for more advanced use.

4.3 Procurement
This point has to be a bit more claryfied.

4.4 Quality control
In Sweden is the quality control performed by the assemblers themselves as a final step. This has also been the case during the pilot project and it has funcioned well. Combined with computer based reporting, it should be even more safe and what we can understand it is not necessary to have a separate control unit, but the control is based on self control.

4.5 Maintenance
In Sweden is 20 hrs a week used for maintenance but this is of all products produced and sold in many years. Returns of basic units are very rare. In Mocambique it could be a good thing to have a maintenance function with a wider responsibility than just the specific training equipment, but also for other types of electronic equipment.

5. Strategy and Execution Plan

5.1 Project Management
A network plan should be elaborated showing all goals and activities and their relations to each others and to the time plan.

5.2 Marketing Strategy

5.2.1 Strategy
In general the strategy should be to create relations with shools, ministrys, authorities, teachers a.s.o.

5.2.2 Distribution
The african continent is big and interesting. It is of future interest. The reexport to the european market is in the long run less interesting.

5.2.3 Pricing
The mariginal is for the time being 40-40% and it is what is needed to run the business. Cheaper equipment is possible to build. If some standard components could be found on local market, they could substitute the ones coming from Sweden and give the result of more money to Grupo Chicomo or cheaper and more products to local customers.

5.2.4 Promotion
Different types of fairs could be interesting. There is one every year in Maputo. Web catalouges are important.

5.2.5 Product

6. Financial Plan

7. Management team

8. Final report

Grupo Chicomo is supposed to verify staff training and the reception of tools and equipment in the report to Nutek. As staff is in this aspect administrative staff at Grupo Chicomo and
employed assembling staff, for example at Industrial Institute.

The final report should relate to the goals and activities mentioned in the project plan and contain a description of performed activities, the real result and verified costs. The equipment delivered and installed should also be verified.

The costs for the project are financed by loans which partially will be annulated if the implementation of the project has followed the instructions and the project is improved by Nutek. This is one reason why it is very important to follow the plans and the formalities strictly.

The final report could be a result of process oriented writing, using this web site as a platform. There is a space for this in the end of the web site open for discussions and comments. Writing a final report in such a way make it not only to a documentation of what happened but also to an instrument in the management and vision making during the final process of the project.

10. Tasks/activites make things happen.

Below you can find a number of goals and tasks listed. The intention is that they should be discussed and well defined by us together, so that they can be organized in a network plan* and guide us to a good result. The reward to reach each goal has to be set by the project owner.

Organizing tasks into milestones and events

If you want something to happen, you have to do it a bit organized and you have to pay for the activities you hire others to do. It is activity planning in a nut shell. Tasks/activites lead to goals/milestones/events/indicators.

A milestone is a reference point marking a major event in a project and used to monitor the project's progress. Any task with zero duration is automatically displayed as a milestone in for example MS Project.You can mark any task of any duration as a milestone, as well as phases (= a group of related tasks that completes a major step in a project).

This gives structure to the project and makes it easier for you to evaluate progress. If you want to work result oriented, the important is the event, symbolizing that you have reached a goal. How you reached the goal is less interesting. Therefore, the Project Planning Tool, Logical Framework Approach focus on indicators which are a certain kind of events similar to milestones showing a probable progress.

In this project we mix tasks and events in an initial phase, that will say what we want to do and which results we want to achieve. Most often it is clearly understood which is the aim with every separate activity. Sometimes it can be easier to implement what is expressed as an activity than to think of what you have to do and which problems you need to resolve to reach a goal expressed by an event.

Example:

Action orientation- focus on task (activity):
"Assemble 10 units successfully"

Result orientation- focus on event (milestone/indicator):
"10 units have been assembled and functions"

In the end it is reaching the goals, the results, that counts.

After each goal, there is a space for you to comment i.a.:
-What you think should be done and how!
-If you are ready to implement the goal.
-If you are ready to finance the implementation, how and
  with how much money.

Without your comments and confirmation,
nothing will happen.
You are also welcome to suggest new goals and activities for us. Do this in the space for comments here!

*A commonly used Project Management tool is the Logical Framework Approach (Metodo Quadro Logico) where the progress is followed up by indicators. The goals below are formulated to be able to function as indicators. A special method is to work with an appreciative incentive, that will say you focus on what already functions and try to go further from the good existing things. In an intercultural project this is especially important to support mutual understanding.

-> 1. One basic unit produced

Indicates that the practical activities has started and that the production instructions have been tested initially.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

Detailed information, discussions and detailjs: see comments!

->2. Tools and material for 10 more units in Beira

Indicates that the transport and customs clearance funcion (in a certain way).

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->3. Ten basic units produced

Indicates that staff and production instructions funcion well in a pilot project.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->4. Tools and material for 50 more units distributed to the assemblers

Indcates that staff exists that can handle a bigger production as well as the clearing procedure at the customs in Maputo.

Initially it was planned to send all the 50 units to the Industrial Institute in Beira to be assembled, since they have proved that they can manage the work well. After discussions with the Industrial Institutes in Maputo and in Matola and thinking about the possibility to get more experience of the function of the instruction material, digital as well as paper based, it would be the best solution to send 30 units to Beira, 10 units to Maputo and 10 units to Matola now and plan for the next shipment in good time. Beira has already done their 10 units and is ready to advance to a bigger production. Maputo is ready to start in August with students, who will assemble units as a kind of practical training, supervised by their teachers at the institute. This production model could also be tried out in Beira. Self employed assemblers / small companies outside the Industiral Institutes could also ge a chans to participate in a test production.

Later on it might be a good idéa to specialize the production at different places. At one place units could be assembled for example, at another place circuit boards could be fabricated and web based distance supervision could be tried out and at a third place course packages and instruction programs could be adapted and developed to local curriculum. Then, in the future, a web based cooperation and exchange of experience between the Industrial Instututes in Mocambique could be arranged. This is just an example of a vision. What will come out depends on which initiatives that will be taken at the different places and by individuals there.

Planned start date earliest:2009-05-11
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:Distribution of material
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:Edgar Baloi
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->5. The total investment need is specified and agreed on

Indcates that the two cooperating companies has had an open discussion about which investment that should be done to facilitate the work and business development for the host company Grupo Chicomo.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->6. Staff from Grupo Chicomo has visited Industrial Institute in Beira

Indicates that the Mocambican cooperation company in the Swedish-Mocmican joint venture project ”Projekt elstudenter” has established cooperation with the production unit in Beira, which for the time beeing is the only funcioning production unit in Mocambique.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->7. Staff from Grupo Chicomo has visited Industrial Institute in Maputo 3 times

Indicates that efforts to organize a production at the Industrial Institute in Maputo has taken place.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->8. Six students have been selected at the Industrial Institute in Maputo and presented to assemble basic units as a practice

Indicates that the production probably will start as decided 3:d of August and can go on up to the end of October.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->9. Staff in Mocambique have assembled electronic training equipment with the help of instructions in digital form as well as in paper based form.

Indicates that the pedagogic material developed for the project has been tested.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->10. Assembling staff in Mocambique have given their opinon on the instruction material.

Indicates that the pedagogic material has been tested.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->11. The digital form of production instruction has been developed with movie clips etc. to a functional Training Video Demo.

Indicates that the experiences from the user test has been taken care of.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->12. The paper based form has been developed to photo cartoon format and a situation adapted design, using the software Indesign.

Indicates that the experience from the tests with the instruction material has been used for further development and cultural/situational adaptation.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->13. Distance forms of communication between specialists in Sweden and staff in Mocambique have been tried out.

Indicates that the possibilities to use Internet for supervising has been tried out.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->14. Picture telephony has been tried for quality control.

Indicates that the possibilities to use Internet for distance based quality control has been tried out.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->15. Individual supervising of assembling staff by an experienced technician has taken place.

Indicates that organized production has taken place.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->16 Twenty teachers in Mocambique has been trained to use training equipment from MicroSupport in their ordinary teaching.

Indicates that the market for the training products has been prepared to some extent.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->17. An information film about the system 2000 and the use of the basic unit in practice has been produced at the Industrial Institute.

Indicates that it is possible to more easily, widely and for a heterogen public (decision makers for example) present the concept of system 2000.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->18. A four pages broschure in Portuguese, describing the system 2000 has been produced.

Indicates that the marketing function, to some extent, is prepared to meet local and regional market.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->19. The curriculum (course plans and goals) for the target group is described in detail.

Indicates that the basic information to be able to describe the need of exercisis is compiled.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->20. Exercises giving the skills described in the curriculum are identified.

Indicates that a local adaptation has been done.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->21. A case oriented laboration in storytelling form has been elaborated.

Indicates a possible alternative design of laborations, tailored for the target group.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->22. An example of how a digital classroom can be used has been elaborated.

Indicates the best use of a digital classroom (work space/platform) in the Mocabician study environment.

Planned start date earliest:2009-05-06
Planned ready date latest:2009-05-08
Activities:Design tests, text production and upload of material
Estimated work time:3 days
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:Sven
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->23. Courses 2-3 days each in practical work in a digital classroom has been held for Mocambican teachers and supervisors.

Indicates that the first barrier to work in a digital class room is broken and that it exists some knowledge about the best possibilities do arrange online distace learning in Mocambique.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->24. An exercise book about how to study electronics using a digital classroom is elaborated.

Indicates that MicroSupport has really planned how a web platform can be useful and integrated with the training concept of MicroSupport.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->25. An instruction sequence based on movie film clips and still film in combination with book based instructions has been developed.

Indicates that further adaptation of instruction methods especially suitable for Mocambique has taken place as a result of earlier tests in practise.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->26. MP4 compression and wmv format for digital presentation of instructions have been tested as an alternative to .swf format (Flash).

Indicates that tentatives have been done to use the most flexible formats for presentation.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->27. Different types of hardware for presentation of instructions has been tested for an optimal choice: cheep, simple, common and easy to use.

Indicates that the use of relative low technology solutions has been consicered.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->28. Hands free and presentation speed controls have been tried out, to make the guidance with digital instruction material more easy.

Indicates the observation and adaptation to an important ergonimic work situation.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->29. Seminars presenting MicroSupport, the system 2000 and the basic training philosofy learning by doing has been held in Maputo, Beira and Nampula.

Indicates that at least a bigger group of people is aware of the training alternative and the possibilities to use the equipment and learning strategy offered with "System 2000".

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->30. Training of local sales staff has taken place

Indicates that the marketing to some extent has grown local.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->31. Training of techers in the use of the system 2000 has taken place.

Indicates that teachers feel more familiar with this equipment and will use it more.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->32. A system for payment per assembled/sold unit is established.

Indicates that production staff and sales management staff know how much they will earn on their engagement in the business.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->33. Grupo Chicomo has clearly and detailed specified its own contribution profile.

Indicates that it is clearified what the host company will do as inhouse business and what has to be outsourced to local entrepreneurs.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->34. Internet connection exists and is available for all teachers and students.

Indicates that the infrastructure for Internet based studies exists.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->35. Payment levels are fixed and presented for the assembling staff.

Indicates that one important and necessary step in the prouction organization is taken.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->36. Payment levels are fixed and agreed on between MicroSupport and the host company Grupo Chicomo.

Indicates that the forms for project finance are explained well and understood in the same way by the cooperating companies.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->37. The possibilities to use Internet for supervising has been tried out.

Indicates that it is possible to use a digital classroom or a web based laboratory.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->38. A learning platform has been registered and all involved has got login names and access to a test area.

Numbers of logins and activities on the platform indicates the real interest of and possibilities to use a digital classroom.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->39. Investigate five typical cases where a company would like help to train their employed using special developed training kits.

Indicates that a cooperation between company and school exists and that the company might be ready to support the training development.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->40. Choose a person, responsible for the local development of training cooperation between Grupo Chicomo, local trainers and companies.

Indicates that the organization of activities in Mocambique has developed from the initial project form to a more permanent implementation form.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->41. Choose one or more assembling places.

Indicates a beginning of specialization of the cooperation with the three industrial institutes and possibilities to test and develop the production instructions more both in digital and paper based form.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->42. Choose one or more contractors for assembling Basic Unit 2000.

Indicates that the cooperation partner in Mocambique has started to organize the production and evaluates who does the best job throw dividing the job into three parts in the next step of 50 (15+15+20).

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->43. Send 50 assembled Basic Units by boat to Sweden.

Indicates that the production after the pilot project has started and succeded.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->44. Contact Pirep after discussion with Ministry of Education, and suggest cooperation for introducing certification of electricians in Mocambique.

Indicates that a well defined field of cooperation is identified, based on discussions about the need with teachers at the training institute at Mozal.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->45. Contact the teachers training institute ”Instituto Superior Dom Busco” to investigate if they are willing to use our training equipment.

Indicates that a step of local marketing has been taken.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->46. Contact the cooperation group from the technial institute in Matola and representatives from ITEC (mek+el) and Nat Africa (furniture).

Indicates an approach to local needs for possible adaptation of training equipment and course packages to existing curriculas and the electricians need of practical skill when working in industrial plants.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->47. Suggest how the pedagogic products of MicroSupport could be useful in the Self Employment Program.

Indicates that a step of local marketing has been taken and that a cooperation with the Ministry of Education has started, to support the self employment program.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->48. Describe how it would be possible to start up self employment.

Indicates that a mutual vision about the meaning of self employment has been developed and that the possibilities to work 1)with a digital product 2)with a paper based product 3)with certification have been considered.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->49. Investigate the situation of the e-learning projects going on at the Ministry of Education and look for possible connections and adaptation.

Indicates the possibility to adapt the pedagogic concept to existing training need also in Internet based training.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->50. Investigate the need of Mechatronic training all over the country.

Indicates that efforts has been taken to map out general training needs in the area.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->51. Letter of Intent between MicroSupport and Grupo Chicomo is revised.

Indicates that the cooperation agreement has been cofirmed and has been expressed more detailed.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->52. Letter of Intent between Grupo Chicomo and the Ministry of Education is elaborated

Indicates that it is possible to make an agreement of cooperation between Grupo Chicomo and Ministry of Education

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->53. A plan for safe store, use, responsability for and transport of equipment is elaborated and equipment is ensured in cases when it should be.

Indicates that the security questions are handled. Grupo Chicomo is for the time being responsible for tools and equipment to a value of 140 000,- .

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->54. A cooperation with the governmental IT project is initiated, for working out and testing distance learning via Internet. The MINED.

Indicates that ways are possible to work with distance learning via Internet even if there is not sufficient equipment and knowledge at the respective Industrial Institute.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date:

->55. Fifty percent of the people working in the project are women

Indicates that equal gender opportunities exists in the project.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date::

->56. An instruction video about how to open a Flash instruction, when it doesn't open automatically, is produced

Indicates that user adaptation of the instruction material has been initiated after some feeback from users.

Problem

This is important if you want to view instructions in Flash:

-The following installed at the computer:
Flash player 9.Activex
Adobe Flash Player 9 Plugin

-The following settings done:
Accept active content on this computer
Internet Explorer has no blocking security settings
Javascript is activated in the web reader
It is possible to right click in a Flash file on settings=>advanced to set local security

User friendliness is important
If settings have to be changed before looking at a program it will not be used so much and easy. Then paper based instructions might be a better alternative, at least in the beginning. When a digital program is running, it can be more user friendly, since it admits movie clips, animations and voice instructions.

Solutions

There are some alternatives to facilitate to get started with a digital instruction:

A:

"Open the door from inside:" Try to right click the start file "player html" and open with your web browser

B:

Local : A good instruction about how to do the necessary local settings.

C:

Online: An uploaded version to run online, which does not demand local settings. This alternative requires a good and stable Internet connection and is not recommended as the only alternativ for the actual target group.

D:

MPEG: Video format Mpeg 1, Mpeg2 or maybe Mpeg4 with a better algoritm than the earlier vidoe formats in combination with VLC Media Player, known as a simple and safe media player. The disadvantage might be bigger files.

E:

FLV: Another possibility is to use FLV, a video format for Flash, but in that case the Flash files must contain a built in player, which makes the production with help of the program "Articulate presenter" a bit more complicated.

F:

A paper based instruction could also be a good alternative:
It is possible to develop the pedagogic functions of the layout in a paper based instruction, using Photo Novel- and cartoon technique. In that case preferably using the layout program Indesign.

G:

A combination of a paper based and a web based instruction could be the best solution:
A combination of a paper based instruction material and a digital presentation might be the ultimate solution. If a paper based and a web based version have an identical layout, it could be easy to go from the paper based material to the web based version and click on still picture illustrations to look at small film clips or animations, explaining more in detail how a moment should be done. It would also be possible to create hyper links to questions directly from special parts of photos and illustrations, helping the student to check if everything is understood in the rigtht way.

After having looked at the explanations once, the structure in the paper based material will help, in a subliminal way, to remember the steps as well as the explanations.

If temporary, there is no connection to the Internet, it is always possible to work only with the paper based material and look at the explanations when possible.

Conclusion

What I can see, it is only to test the different alternatives and evaluate what is functioning best for the target group. The tests could be done when assembling the next 50 units. Then we will learn not only how to present the content in a pedagogic way, but also how to pack it in the best digital or/and paper based form.

Planned start date earliest:
Planned ready date latest:
Activities:
Estimated work time:
Estimated costs:
Responsible for implementation:
Responsible for payment:
Finished and ready date::

->57. HD video conferencing is tested

Video conferencing is tested, both in normal image quality and in HD-quality (720x1280).

->58. HD instructions on YouTube is tested

The HD-quality (720x1280) is nowadyays also possible to use to uppload instructions to YouTube. A test instruction has been produced and uploaded to Youtube.
Using film clips and communication in HD could be an advantage in the instruction situation worth to try out.

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Activity report January-June 2009

Abstract in Swedish

Learning how to manage the project instead of learning electronics

Initially the aim of the project was to assemble electronic training equipment, in a cost effective way for the european market, in Mocambique where the salaries are low, and throw this activity contribute to a learning by doing process in the area electronics and electricity in the host country. The activities were planned to take place at vocational training centers as a kind
of laboative training. A continuous support from Swedish staff in Mocambique to organize and implement these activities was also planned.

After some tentatives to start the project in Maputo, it was successfully started in Beira. Theearlier developed instructions for assembling equipment functioned and the first shipment of material was assembled in the end of last year. The assemblers were enthusiastic and asked for more material. Now, half a year later, they have not yet got more material, since the shipment was delayed 9 months in Sweden, from august 2008 to april 2009 and the payment of the customs fee has not been done up to now, 3 months after the arrival of another shipment.

This indicates that the problems are not technical, but of more administrative and logistic nature. There is also a need to search for the best way of doing business together in a more general aspect. The demand of the equipment we started to assemble is limited and decreasing. It is not even such a work intensive process to assemble this equipment that it, with high customs fees, is a good business to do it in Mocambique for the European market.

From the beginning tax reduction was counted upon, but it has not yet been realized. It needs a closer bilateral cooperation around price setting and addressing of the goods to suit the norms of the customs. Anyhow, there are other equipment, that could be more profitable to assemble and there are practical and computer based training methods, that could be introduced. The first production have functioned as an administrative battering ram. The companies in this joint venture project have learned to know each others and are ready to a deeper cooperation. The field of possibilities is also partially investigated.

A two weeks visit in Mocambique with discussions

Direction staff from the two cooperating companies MicroSupport from Sweden and Grupo Chicomo in Mocambique met some days in april/may and the Swedish direction visited the production places. The focus of cooperation has moved towards a more exclusive cooperation between MicroSupport and Grupo Chicomo, who has been given all the responsibilities for the management in Mocambique. One advantage is that english can be used as a common language.

A consequense is that on this level, the project focus more on management and search of business opportunities of a both-winner-concept, than on pedagogic development and involvement in staff training and knowledge transfer as such in the area och electronics and electricity. The pedagogics will instead focus on to create a good business-to business communication.

When visiting the Industrial Institutes in Maputo, Matola and Beira, they were all offered to continue/start cooperation with the Project Elstudenter and an idea is, according to the task list, to divide the assembling work of the 50 unmounted units, now waiting at the customs in Maputo, between the three Institutes and maybe specialize the cooperation to different areas in the future.

This strategy will give the best feed back to the production instructions and the most wide spread contact net for future marketing and business cooperation.

Business to business communication

One advantage of the focus on business to business communication between the Directions of MicroSupport and Grupo Chicomo is that the project leaders can talk directly to each others in English. The organization of and communication with assembling staff is a business only for the Mocambikan company who is the owner of the production. The only way for MicroSupport to communicate with technical staff is through the instructions included with the material and tools for assembling. Of course cooperation can be arranged on any level, but on the Mocambikan partners demand. To the instruction material can also be included distance or hands-on support of course. In this way the responsibilities are more clarified.

Organizing the project towards events and milestones

A tentative to brake down project activities into events and milestones exists. This more target oriented model for project administration suits more, when there are no project manager present where the assembling take place. It is still a question if it will be a natural way to communicate, focusing more on milestones than on the complicated process, but let us see.

The temporary and very limited presence of the project owner MicroSupport, during the phase of establishment of the production, has probably delayed the production, but not necessary the quality of the cooperation between the partner companies or the process of learning cooperative management.

If the main purpose was, as described in the project plan, to start up fabrication, it could have been done more smooth and fast without beeing more expensive, but if this activity is seen more as a start point for future cooperation, a kind of expansion survey, the very limited influence from Swedish staff in Mocambique could be an advantage and gain local empowerment, if something good will come out from the project.

Steerageway gives motivation which gives result

Project management is like reading, biking and work in general. If you do it too slowly, your mental sense of balance loose the apprehension of context and orientation. We need steerageway, a minimum rate of motion, to maneuver a project as well as a vessel towards desired goals. It is the same with a match. You have to strike it fast enoungh and with sufficient friction to get fire. And to keep the fire burning you need to blow and support with fire wood.

If an initiative comes to the right environment and in the right time and is just what is needed in that moment, a small effort could give a big result, like a puff of air. But still, if you don't take care of the fire continuously, support it with new material and air, there is a tendency that it dies down. You need to sit by and attend to a fire. You need to be there all the time and not just now and then, if you want to have the full control of the situation.

The fire in human bodies is the motivation and the personal visions. To get the feeling of progress, it is needed to maneuver with a certain speed and to experience a continous result. Seen from the horizon of the assembling staff, it is necessary to act faster to keep the motivation. If not, there is a risk that the project will bee seen as one of all these development projects which passed by and just left some dying whirls in the water.

This project has all possibilities to succeed, lead to a stable business and give pay off with enough steerageway. We need to improve upon that, without blaming anyone, just looking for ways to run the project and the future business faster and have that in mind all the time.

"Time is not waiting".

Pedagogic material
















Maybe the production of pedagogic instruction video programs will be the only product in the future bilateral cooperation.

Towards film clips embedded in Flash instructions

Some ideas about how to develop new instructions in the future have come up, including the use of short film clips like this one
or this one. It makes model learning easy. Small film clips can be organized to an advanced instruction for example how to assemble electronic training equipment. It is also possible to mix text, pictures and film clips, just like the material you are reading now.

It is possible to put video into a PowerPoint program but it is not possible to convert the PowerPoint file to Flash with Articulate presenter and keep the film clip. Anyhow, there are ways to go around this problem.

Since it happens in some cases that there can be problems to open the Flash files automatically, a question is if it would be better to choose another format. -But then the possibility to use quiss is lost.

Using the best and cheapest play back equipment.

Mini-PC:s and Linux system is O.K. Keyboard labels for 15 USD are available if the keyboard is of a foreign type. Even media players. Using DVD:s without any need to have Internet connection could be a good choice, epecially where there is no permanent access to Internet.

Cheap, smart and simple ways to optimize playback equipment for viewing digital instructions, like this mouse for flexible film navigation, foot and knee controls for free hands during assembling and head sets for spoken information to leave the eyes free to concentrate on the work has also been proposed.

Joy sticks are used as video game controllers, but could also be adapted to control and communicate with training programs in an easy way. The input device is important for a learner as well as for a pilot.

E-learning going simple

E-learning means nowadays any learning via computer. Earlier it was often associated to complicated simulations but today, a simple Youtube-video about for example how you change strings on your guitar is also regarded as e-learning. The tendency is to make e-learning more simple, fast and cheap. A well prepared film clip could be easier to understand, even than an instructor.

Discussions about the use of a learning platform for production instruction has taken place. A proposal has been done, to develop a functional example. Running e-learning on a platform gives the possibility to control individual students and their progress. It might be more useful for theoretical studies and information than for instructions how to do things, but it is possible to use any pedagogic material on a platform. The platform is like a virtual classroom with a teacher.

Text books still going strong

Traditional instruction books can be very useful and could be more easy to follow if photos, serial techniques and maybe also story telling are used to illustrate a process more like in cartoons.

We have tried to follow paper based instructions when assembling the Basic Unit 2000 and it has worked well with people with a relatively high education, used to read text books and follow instructions, but the less basic knowledge a reader has, the more detailed and clear instructions are necesarry and maybe sometimes it is not sufficient with still pictures and text or speach.

The combination between text books and video clips

Some situations are hard to describe clear with words and still pictures only. A combination between an instruction book and movie clips could be a solution when text and pictures are not enough. A text book + a DVD that could be viewed in a TV-monitor or computer could be a good basic solution.

In cases when there are not always easy to get access to computers and Internet, it is also good to have two parallell information canals. When both are available they work together like audio canals in stereo sound, but if not, the information is still available "in mono".

A short movie could also give a comprehensive understanding and serve as an introduction to a textbook where the process is analysed and described in detail step by step.

Software development - a knowledge management activity
Maybe it is in this software area the big possibilities to bilateral knowledge and business cooperation are hidden. To develop different production instruction programs together for national and regional use, and to develop methods for use of playback equipment in an ergonomic, pedagogic and rational way. Working together to produce learning material would also contribute to a mutual learning process.

"How to do it yourself instead of to import it expensive."
The concept develops to an IKEA-similar solution for entrepreneurs and small companies. Packages of tools, material an assembling instrucions are offered to small companies and groups of people who are ready to do the assembling work and sell the result on the local market. When possible it could be sufficient to specify tools and material necessary to arrange on the local or international market and a good instruction how to assemble/build the equipment from scratch.

Hours of training

The technical training of assembling staff has been substituted by administraion and management training in the form learning by doing for a bilateral development project like this. The problem has not been how to manage the technical part of the project, but how to act together and to understand each others and how to manage administrative problems together.

The learnig takes part between two business cultures and in the meeting between two different leadership styles, that exists i both of the cultures. It is all about how to make business together and the learning is going on continuously. It is not like that simple with knowledge transfer as something between a better knowing instructor and his student, that maybe some of us thouhgt from the beginning.

The project management has newly got online based. It seems that it is a good way to manage a bilateral project on a business platform. It also gives experience for communication on a learning platform.

The hours for training are, in this way of viewing it, all hours of all persons involved in the project since the training is a complex process and not a one way communication from expert to novise.

Conclusions

It seems that the possible profitability of cooperation, where import of material is necessary, depends on Mocambican customs rules and their applications and nothing else. If the Mocambican counterpart in the future has to pay too high customs fees for material, it won't be much left to pay the local assembling & handling.

We had serious problems with the customs the first time we sent material from Sweden. In the end a brooker had to be contracted, to solve the problems. After that the Mocambican counterpart declared that they had got the experience and know how to manage the customs clearance without high costs and problems in the future. Still, for the second shipment, high costs were claimed. Partially this was an effect of lack of cooperation between the Mocambican and the Swedish company about the formal addressing of the goods and the stated value.

There is a possibility to put the value of material lower than it is, in order to reduce the tax in Mocambique. This, will of course affect the possibility to get insurance compensation for loss of equipment. There is also a possibility to send material for assembling of training equipment directly to a governmental training institution to get tax exemption.

It would be most profitable to assemble light eqipment, whith cheap components that takes a relatively long time to put together, since the differences between salary levels between Sweden and Mocambique is the basis of the whole business. That could be the case with printed circuit cards. It could also be good for the counterpart in Mocambique to import components directly from where they are fabricated and to fabricate some more heavy parts of the units locally. Another way is to successively substitute material training equipment with virtual training applications and video training.

If material will be sent back to Sweden, assembled to units, the total customs fee should be calculated on the difference between the value of the material and the assembled units and it should be rather low, but still there is a considerable cost for return shipping. Up to now, no material has been sent back to Sweden, not by air, nor by vessel.

Some figures from the project book keeping:

All paid hours for the project
All travel costs
Value of equipment transferred to the business partner
Cost of material transport and customs clearance

Meeting between two cultures

A bilateral project is a meeting between two cultures and so was also the celebration of the Mozambican national holiday the 25:th of June. The embassy arranged a celebration in Stockholm. Some of us foreigners who have been living in Mozambique were invited.

It could be written much about the meeting between the modern traditionalism and the traditional modernity and between colonialism, socialism and capitalism. For individuals changes of ideas take place step by step and not in the same time as for the social paradigms. Some people keep their old ideas and a more traditional life style, in the course of their whole lives, in a changing society, while others are more open for new ideas.

Characteristic keywords for the dominant social paradigm (DSP) of Western industrial societies are consumption, education and environment, but the traditional society, wherever it is, has other keywords for DSP. Try to find them in the National Anthems below!

Confrontations and mixture of different ideas can sometimes be a bit confusing, especially for foreigners, but for the open minded person it could be an asset.

In a concentrate the new National Anthem from 2002 compared with the old one, reflects some changes of basic idéas.

The text of the new version (2002- ) in English translation:

In the memory of Africa and the World
Beautiful fatherland of that they had dared to fight
Mozambique, your name is Freedom
The Sun of June forever will shine

Mozambique, our Glorious Land
Rock by rock constructing the new day
Millions of arms in one only force
O Loved fatherland we go to be successful

Joined people from Rovuma to Maputo
It harvests the fruits of the combat for the Peace
The dream grows waving in the flag
It goes cultivating in the certainty of tomorrow

Flowers sprouting of the soil of your sweat
For mounts, the rivers, the sea
We swear for you, O Mozambique
No tyrant in will go them to enslave


The text of the old version (1975-2002) in English translation:

Long live FRELIMO,
Guide of the Mozambican people,
Heroic people who, gun in hand,
Toppled colonialism.
All the People united
From the Rovuma to the Maputo,
Struggle against imperialism
And continue, and shall win.

Long live Mozambique!
Long live our flag, symbol of the Nation!
Long live Mozambique!
For thee your People will fight.
United with the whole world,
Struggling against the bourgeoisie,

Our country will be the tomb
Of capitalism and exploitation.
The Mozambican People,
Workers and peasants,
Engaged in work
Shall always produce wealth.

The Portuguese National Anthem from 1910 - before independence

O Heroes of the sea, noble people,
Valiant and immortal nation,
Arise today oncemore
The splendour of Portugal.
From out of the mists of memory,
O Homeland, feel the voices
Of your great forefathers
That shall lead you on to victory!

Refrain
To arms, to arms
On land and sea!
To arms, to arms
To fight for our Homeland!
Against the guns we march, we march!