New students of the University of Lay Adventists of Kigali- Nyanza Campus were warmly welcomed at the campus. “We are happy to receive you within our campus, we wish you success during your academic journey that you are undertaking; we wish to see you achieving great things,” Dr. Denise Mukandoli, the coordinator of Nyanza Campus addressing the new students. The coordinator urged them to work in line with the UNILAK Motto which is “Knowledge and Wisdom”; she tells them to always remember that they are at UNILAK for the major purpose which is acquiring knowledge and that the latter will help them to better serve their respective countries. The afresh students were introduced to the different departments available at Nyanza campus,  and were therefore given information on the profile of a graduate from each of these departments as well as all the services given by these departments among them registration, transfers within departments where necessary, arrangements for exams as well as marks communication. Apart from formal education; UNILAK offers also a spiritual education, it is in that line new comers were welcomed to church services offered on Sabbath day and were also told that every year UNILAK organizes a spiritual week whereby students and staff are preached on different topics and at the closing of this spiritual week a baptism is offered to those who need it. Students were urged to take UNILAK as their second home, to live in harmony and helping each other in their daily life at campus. They were also called to join different clubs and associations working within UNILAK. The one day induction held this Monday saw 119 students among them nationals and international students; all of them have registered for January Intake.

The Youth in Agro-ecology and Business Learning Track in Africa (YALTA) and its partners in Rwanda’s agriculture sector have organized discussions on engaging youth in agro-ecology farming in order to take the lead in the country’s agriculture transformation journey. The discussions were held in Rwamagana District from 1st to 2nd April, 2021 under the event dubbed “Youth and Agro-ecology National Caravan 2021 with a theme of “Promoting agro-ecology and unlocking the business opportunities for youth in Rwanda.” Participants in the discussions were warmly welcomed by Dr. Semana Javan, the UNILAK campus coordinator who reminded them that they cannot promote rural development without promoting agriculture. “You are most welcome in these discussions; which are of great importance for you as students in rural development and all of us here. What I can tell you is that you cannot promote rural development while letting behind the agriculture. I know most of the youth take agriculture as a profession for illiterate people, but this is not true as the Rwanda’ economy depends on agriculture which employs around 80% of the total population,” said Dr. Javan. He urged participants to venture into agriculture as the sector has huge potential for business opportunities with high returns for themselves and rest of the population. This event saw different presentations among them a presentation on Youth and employment whereby the presenter, Mr Innocent Ndikumana, a lecturer at the University of Lay Adventists of Kigali pointed out some opportunities available in the areas of agri-preneurship, urban agriculture and vegetable farming. The district of Rwamagana through its representative in the event appreciated YALTA initiative. “We thank you for your initiative, we thank you for choosing our district to host the Rwanda Youth Caravan 2021 in the Eastern Province and we promise you our full support in promoting youth in agro-ecology farming. Don’t hesitate to contact us any kind of help,” said Dr. Niyitanga , the director of Agriculture and Natural Resources in Rwamagana District. The Youth and Agroecology National Caravan 2021 aims at enabling young agripreneurs to gain practical knowledge, skills, approaches, through peer-to-peer exchanges and learning from youth-led agribusiness enterprises, exposure field visits to youth-led and successful farms/firms within and beyond their own horizons. It targets young innovators, marketers, youth leaders who are already passionate and motivated about their businesses and are ready to be change-makers in developing sustainable and scalable agroecological business modes. This caravan was organized by YALTA Rwanda in collaboration with MINAGRI, RYAF, AGRITERRA, Help Child Rwanda, University of Rwanda, UNILAK, and Three Mountain, ROAM, YEAN Rwanda, and others.

UNILAK emerged among the 3 winners in a competition that brought together 33 universities across Africa. The competition was on employability promotion in higher education institutions in Africa.  The Organizer of the event was ACCESS (the African Centre for Career Enhancement & Skills Support) at the Leipzig University in Germany, together with its African partners, a consortium of 6 universities, namely IRGIB (Benin) KNUST (Ghana), Mount Kenya University (Kenya), INES Ruhengeri (Rwanda), University of Ibadan (Nigeria) and Tunis University (Tunisia). The rationale behind the competition was that University staff and especially lecturers are crucial actors for teaching the next generation of employees and entrepreneurs, and are endowed with the capacity and creativity to develop innovative concepts that impact the employability of graduates.  In this regard, the competition revolved around this question: How can employability skills be developed and implemented in future university curriculum? The ideas presented were analyzed on the basis of 5 criteria, namely feasibility, adaptability (simplicity or ease of use), degree of innovation (novelty), attractiveness (for different actors, such as students, teachers, companies), and costs (resources). The selection went through 2 stages: In the pre-selection stage, 10 best ideas were selected from 34 ideas presented by 33 universities across Africa with 79 participants, as universities were also allowed to work as a team.  In the final stage, only 3 winners were selected for award. The first winner was HOUINSU Dedehouanou, lecturer at University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin.  The next winner was Innocent NDIKUMANA, Lecturer at University of Lay Adventists of Kigali (UNILAK) in Rwanda, and the last, but not least, was Nashon Adero, lecturer at Taita Taveta University in Kenya. Besides a participation certificate and possible publication of winning ideas on the upcoming ACCESS Wiki platform, the 3 winners will get the opportunity to get a 3-month scholarship to further develop their ideas and transfer information to other universities of higher learning institutions to improve the teaching methods, geared towards employability promotion.  The African Centre for Career Enhancement & Skills Support (ACCESS) at the Leipzig University seeks to address the paradox of a growing and improved formal education system in Africa which does not improve access to the labor market, but rather contributes to increasing unemployment rates among university graduates. ACCESS therefore aims to improve access to the labor market in African countries where graduate unemployment is usually very high – over 30 percent in some instances. Within the framework of ACCESS, new interdisciplinary concepts will be developed and piloted to contribute to increasing the employability of students and graduates of African universities.    ACCESS is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) under the “Higher Education Excellence in Development Cooperation – (exceed)” programme. With “exceed”, DAAD supports the establishment of international university networks on four continents with funds from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).