INFOP offers Free Online Courses to Hondurans Everywhere

INFOP Offers Free Online Courses to Hondurans Everywhere

By Wendy Griffin

The current Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez has not let grass grow under his feet in trying to restart the Honduran economy. He began his presidency with a Digital Agenda and a job program called Con Chamba Vivis Mejor (With a job you will live better). In a country not yet ready educationally for the challenges of the new globalized economy,  INFOP, the Honduran government’s training Internet program for non-college programs is offering English, business, and Internet design couses for free online.

Since they are online, they are available to Hondurans estén donde estén, wherever they may be. As that is needed to register  online is a Honduran ID card number and to be over 14 years old. The English course Yes I Can has 10 levels. Classes start many times a year. The webdesign courses include basic webdesign and a special course in Dreamweaver, a popular webdesign software. The topics look equivalent to what people are studying in classes in Georgia and in Pennsylvania. I think there is demand for Spanish speaking or bilingual website designs. Garifunas in Los Angeles, California were exicted about the Honduran government’s initiative.

Many Hondurans will not be ready to start with this high a level of course, according to a diagnostic study of the Ministry of Education and my own research. For people who need a lower level course to learn about the Internet and computers, I have been teaching a course called Internet para Hondureños (Internet for Hondurans) . It is free and online at www.historiahondurasindigena.blogspot.com.

Some of the people who teach other Hondurans how to use the Internet either are not teachers, or do not know the vocabulary for computers in Spanish, so this course begins at the beginning with the parts of a computer.  New lessons appear every two weeks, barring unforeseen problems like illness. Five lessons are currently up. This course is free to any Spanish speaker, not just Hondurans.