It may have sounded like a mission impossible when I wrote on my previous blog: “My passion and interest to contribute - lies indeed within education, healthcare and entrepreneurship. As I embark on my next chapter on building up Somalia, one person, one brick at a time. I hope that you will join me on my journey to make the world a better place for all of us.”

However, since 2011, I have been doing a lot of work at low key…

This includes fact-finding missions which I have carried out on numerous occasions. These were aimed at investigating what the country (especially the educational institutes in Somalia) is missing and the need of the community. I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel but wanted to find out and hear people’s stories to know their needs and know more about the education sector in Somalia. I was listening, observing and absorbing their information like a sponge. As Russell Simmons once said “You just have to pay attention to what people need and what has not been done”. Of course I knew that my commitment to help my birth country wasn’t exclusive to a one-off trip.

Though, I was planning and preparing myself to make a big contribution first in the education sector, years before 2015, I still decided to come back again to Somalia with an open mind. I then collect the information to see what hasn’t been done and I also paid attention to what people needed. As a result I have established Hano Academy.

Profile

Hano, which means ‘achieve’ in Somali, is Academic Progression and Polytechnic Academy, designed to support and uplift our community through skill training, educational development and employment.

Learners will receive lectures, tutorials, as well as tuition and practise in generic, 

transferrable skills, which are occupation-specific to meet employers’ immediate needs, and which will automatically promotes occupational and career mobility and a desire for continuing professional development for academics.

 Our higher-educated team of academic and vocational specialists bring a wealth of experience and expertise to Hano Academy to benefit the learner’s further skill training and education development. They are united by a common goal of improving and enabling learners to achieve and maximise their skill training, education and employment potential.

Hano Academy broadens learners’ horizon, creates visible opportunities for them to better their future and enables them to have the drive and aspiration to imagine, innovate, discover and create what they are really capable of. We at Hano Academy are here to harness their ability and uplift them for the betterment of our society.

Our Vision is:

·       To equip learners to redeem their ability to grow their educational and employment potential, and to enable them to have a more inclusive society, for they themselves to become generators of innovation!

Our Mission is:

·       To establish academic progression and polytechnic academies, which facilitate our educational objectives, first in Somalia, then reaching out to other regions in Africa, and beyond.

Our Aim is:

·       To help learners achieve and maximise their potential to obtain employment, or to create and develop their own income-creating ventures, or progress to further education enabling them to contribute social development in their community.

Our Objective is:

To offer facilities for knowledge, practical skills and expertise designed to boost both personal and social development, as well as productivity, growth in the job market, and profitability, and to promote innovation, through:

·       Upgrading skills

·       Academic progression

·       Personal and social development

·       Workplace experience for skills development

·       Vocational training (including basic education if needed)

·       Entrepreneurship with Company formation and business start-ups

Services of Hano Academy

The following services (courses and training) shall be provided to our learners at a high quality standard with credited certificates:

·       Upgrading skills is provided for those with knowledge in a specific field of expertise wanting to enhance, bring up-to-date, extend their practicable skills within that sphere, or gain relevant Certificates in their field of expertise, or, to develop knowledge or practice in a related area. It is also for those who wish to catch up on general schooling for the furtherance of their pursuit of employment or education.

·       Academic progression is for those people who desire to undergo continuing professional development (CPD), or for those who wish to add to their graduate status with further theoretical and/or practical courses, or those who desire to improve their education for the possibility of attending university eventually. This is also for those who want a career change.

·       Personal and social development is a lifelong process. It is a way for people to assess their skills and qualities, consider their aims in life and set goals in order to realise and maximise their potential. Students learn about the challenges that they confront in today’s world and the successes they achieve as they apply their own local knowledge and ingenuity to those challenges. This promotes a caring and integrated system of personal and social development services that facilitates encroachment and improves the quality of life.

·       Workplace experience for skills development provides training and opportunities to practise in disciplines obtained mainly from being in the working environment, building on theory learned on day-release courses at Hano Academy.

·       Vocational training (including basic education if needed) offers a wide variety of possible career options, many of which involve providing service or care to people. Each of the roles has a strong element of practical skill or expertise to be developed. During the training, the learner will practise while they are attending classes for the necessary theory (including ICT modules if required) before doing any fieldwork. Where applicable, we offer basic education.

·       Entrepreneurship with Company formation and business start-ups is aimed at those wishing to gain insight into the practicalities and challenges of setting up their own trading opportunity. Modules will cover evaluation of business ideas, market research, product definition, business plan, legal documentation, contractual obligations and conventions, successful marketing, managing cash flow, employing staff, payroll and taxes – everything necessary to convert an idea into regular income.

Hano Academy facilitates learning opportunities designed to equip the learners for their specific choice of skill training, education and employment progression. Thus, we have organised our six main foci, mentioned above, under four faculties:

• Educational      Progression
• Personal      and Social Development
• Vocational      Training (Including Basic Education if needed)
• Workplace      Experience for Skills Development

I am working to the highest of my ability to help change lives of few Somalis through skill training, educational development and employment, offered at Hano Academy

So, I hope that you will be able to join me on my journey to make the world a better place.

For more information on Hano Academy please visit at our website at: www.hanoacademy.com

If you want to get involved and help, there are a variety of ways to contribute including:

-        Being a teacher or a mentor

-        Donate books and computers

-        Give a scholarship to top students

-        Become a Friend of Hano Academy

-        Sponsor an under-privilege student

-        Help us to facility our recruitment agency

-        Help us to build our first library and our eco-friendly building in phase two.

-        Help us to establish our proposed Medical Research Institute which will be the first in Somalia EVER!

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Thank you for reading my post and please feel free to join the conversation!

Thank you for reading my blog post and please feel free to join the conversation!