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Infoxchange Australia with the support of the Victorian Government has created the opportunity for six East Timorese students to study in Melbourne and to be trained at Certificate Level III in Information Technology as part of the InfoTimor project. They are learning how to build computers and networks and observing how a social enterprise like Green PC is run, in order to replicate the model on their return to East Timor. The students are also studying English with the Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT) while they are in Australia, to enable them to network and communicate with Non Government Organisations in East Timor on their return.

The group is made up of six young people from East Timor's biggest cities Dili and Baucau and they're aged between 18 and 25. They are spending the next four months training at Infoxchange Australia's Head Office training centre and Green PC workshop. At the end of this time they will return to Dili, East Timor's capital, where they will continue to study for a further two months to finalise their qualification.

Infoxchange will support the participants on return to East Timor to set-up and run their own not-for-profit enterprise similar to Infoxchange Australia's Green PC. InfoTimor—a new social initiative—will provide local communities with affordable computers and ICT skills.

Eventually InfoTimor will train and employ local people who will deliver computer services to their communities, local businesses and government, such as computer refurbishing, helpdesk support and training. InfoTimor is an enterprise run by East Timorese people for East Timorese people.

“We want to set up a skilled workforce of half a dozen people who can also then provide support services to small businesses and generate an income from doing that, which will make the enterprise sustainable” said Andrew Mahar, Executive Director of Infoxchange Australia.

The InfoTimor project aims to address East Timor's low level of technological infrastructure and skilled IT staff and eventually address further issues such as unemployment and the digital divide.

“Training six East Timorese in ICT skills will be the first step in enabling many more East Timorese to access the benefits of new technology, communications and simply a pathway to employment” said Andrew Mahar. “It is a small step towards big change for the country.”