Technology Education in Addis Ababa
(Gunner V Dohrenwend)
Partners: Addis Ababa University school of Information science
Design Space
Tech Sector
The tech sector in Addis Ababa is rapidly expanding, seen in part through the adoption
and ubiquity of smart cellular devices and the increased coverage of 4G and 5G cell service. The
market is mostly controlled by a few major players, specifically banks, construction companies, IT services, and government-owned Ethio Telecom which currently has a monopoly over all telecommunications services in Ethiopia. Employees at these large companies usually have a college education, and a majority of Master’s students at SIS have their education funded by their employers.Alongside the dominant reigns of these large companies, there has also been a growth in the number of local tech repair and tech sales businesses in Addis Ababa, whose employees are usually self-taught through non-university classes, independent internet research, and work experience.
University Education, AAU and the Job Market
Specialized tech education is increasing in demand, especially related to software
engineering and electrical engineering. Software engineering courses focus on the largest and
most influential languages globally, including Python, Java, HTML, and C++. Courses are
influenced by the demands of the job market, and platforms like Moodle, Telegram, and Google
Classroom are used to provide resources to students and allow them to turn in assignments
online. All courses at the SIS are in-person, but resources are provided to students who need to
miss a day or a few days. Problems with infrastructure and access to new technology still pose
challenges that universities need to work around.Local companies look to hire students out of the engineering program at AAU, but many students opt to pursue remote work instead. Companies like Turing, UpWork, and WellFound provide online platforms for programmers to connect to businesses internationally. A degree is not usually required for this contract-driven form of employment, but contracts are still competitive.
Data Collection Methods
Tibebe Beshah, PhD
- Assistant Professor at the SIS
- Approx. 30 minutes
- Key topics: Master’s and PhD students, system thinking, learning management systems,
infrastructure, automation

Surveys(11 responses from 8 different locations)
- Ethio Telecom: 3 (two different locations)
- Abulu Mobile: 2
- Market Mobile: 2
- Yonatan Mobile
- Ebrahim Phone
- Kings Mobile
- Alpha Mobile Center
- 6 rejections
Trends in Surveys
- 100 percent of stores surveyed sold electronic products, and ~36 percent also fixed
broken devices - 2 out of 3 Ethio Telecom employees had university education, and only 2 of the other eight responses from local businesses had university education
- When faced with a problem that an employee can’t solve, most surveyed chose to look it
up online rather than turn away the customer - 3 responses said that employees were usually hired online, 5 through recommendations, 3
from job fairs, and 2 from walk-ins - When questioned about competition in the tech service industry, 5 said there was a lot of
competition, 3 said there was some competition, and 3 said there was little competition.
None said that there was no competition.
Design Research Question
How can tech education in Addis Ababa be impacted to achieve a state where more
potential students are able to receive education and gain careers in the tech space while
respecting the current education landscape?
“impact tech education” – introduce a system or product that positively changes different points
of education, such as how many students receive education or the quality of resources given to
prospective, current, and former students.
“Respecting current education landscape” – creating an intervention that is informed to the
factors influencing education in Addis Ababa (infrastructure, culture, different levels of access to
technology in areas of Addis Ababa, etc.), and respecting the teaching styles of staff.
Stakeholder Map

Intervention Narrative

Limitations
– It would be impossible to understand and take into account every facet of the technology education and tech industry space in Ethiopia in the course of this three-week program, and there is much more to look into.
– It should also be acknowledged that this research and design intervention was made by a person from outside of Ethiopia, thus inevitably missing some awareness and understanding of the realities of truly living in Addis Ababa.
– A language barrier could also impact the type of information some stakeholders were willing to share, especially in the case of the surveys given.
– However, with these limitations, I believe that the information I have gathered is accurate and that much progress was made into understanding tech education in Ethiopia.
Next Steps
If this design prototype were to be implemented, there would be a few steps required to roll it out:
– Development of online courses in subjects like IT, software engineering, device repair, and data science
– This would include both organization of the course and web development – Staff training in the operations of the new course
– Marketing of new course in Addis Ababa
– Approval of courses from major hirers in tech space