CREEC in partnership with Village Energy trained solar PV technicians from 2nd -6th and 16th – 20th November 2015 in the districts of Soroti and Pallisa respectively. Village Energy is a renewable energy company based in Kampala, Uganda with a goal of providing energy services to the 80% of African households that are currently lacking. The recruitment of the trainees was done by village energy team. The major objectives for these trainings were;

• To have technicians at the village levels acquire skills of solar system installation units,  install solar systems, repair broken solar units and other electronics like radios, phones etc.

• To enable the youth become  job creators rather than job seekers thus self-sustainability.

Some of the solar PV trainees after a training session

The trainings carried out were both theoretical and practical and consisted of lectures, exercises, hands-on experience and assessment. The theory concentrated on the electrical basics, solar home system components, their functions, operation and maintenance, safety precautions etc.

The practical sessions included effects of parallel and series connections, factors affecting the performance of solar systems for instance shading, mismatching, orientation, tilt angle, system sizing. During the training, continuous assessments were carried out to ease in ranking the trainees. Numerous practical sessions were conducted both on individual and group basis especially in general installation.