Consortium members from Botswana, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, Italy, and the AAC Space Africa team from Sweden consortia all actively participated in the meeting.
The Focus on Africa Space Science and Technology for Future Development (FAST4Future) programme, which seeks to improve STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education in African higher education institutions, recently held its kick-off meeting. It was organised by the Pan African Planetary and Science Network (PAPSSN).
Consortium members from Botswana, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, Italy, and the AAC Space Africa team from Sweden consortia all actively participated in the meeting. The consortia expressed their eagerness to support STEM initiatives and their willingness to watch FAST4Future develop as it has the potential to motivate the next generation of African innovators.
As Africa continues to make significant progress towards advancing the fourth industrial revolution, the FAST4Future initiative aims to use Planetary and Science Technology (PSST) to promote sustainable growth and the creation of jobs in the continent.
The following are FAST4Future’s main goals:
In order to encourage more students to pursue and succeed in STEM fields, higher education institutions across Africa should make STEM education more accessible.
Update current PSST programmes to meet modern requirements established by policymakers and industry standards. This action is essential to ensuring that institutions of higher learning in Africa remain current and pertinent in the rapidly changing technological landscape.
By encouraging staff mobility, support the internationalization of higher education institutions. This initiative will make it easier for people to collaborate, exchange knowledge, and adopt best practises around the world.
Encourage the standardization of PSST in Africa so that students can move around with ease. Students will have more opportunities to study and gain practical experience at various institutions across the continent if curricula and competencies are aligned.
FAST4Future aims to create a Center for Excellence that will be closely connected to a virtual platform in addition to these goals. It will be extremely important for this centre and platform to promote resource accessibility and facilitate coordinated actions among participating institutions.