LEI Supports Young Professionals in Laos

Hello, my name is Mark Williams. For those that don’t know me I am the latest in a long line of Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) volunteering on the Lao Land Titling Project II. I am a GIS/IT Officer and within my 8 months here in Laos, have been working on a variety of projects with a range of organisations. These include the analysis of Land Use change over 10 years within Vientiane for a GTZ funded research project, conduct training on quality checking the digital cadastre as well as training the trainers at the Polytechnic College in GIS so they will be able to teach it as part of a module within their new Land Administration Degree.

We conduct 2 lessons a week for one and a half hours each time with this being split between theory and practical. The lessons have been conducted in English with our National Education and VIS Advisor, Mr Soukasem, translating into Lao. We are teaching approx 8 staff in GIS (including the Vice Director of the College, Mr Bounthanom) with 2 people taking the teaching duties of the module at the completion. Once the training has finished Mr Soukasem and I – in collaboration with the Polytechnic College – will collate, translate and produce a syllabus for the GIS module of the Degree. The GIS module will run for approximately 20 weeks with the focus being on Land Administration.

The training of the trainers has been a very rewarding and challenging experience. Having never taught before as well as my first introduction to development work it was/is a little daunting, however as I like to say – if you don’t look up you never see how far you have to climb! It is a fantastic opportunity, something that I have enjoyed immensely and I look forward to seeing the results further down the track.