Harare, ZIMBABWE – Oftentimes on this blog, we have tried to insist that – as game-changing as they are to the industries they apply to – drones; event the best ones; are only as good as the data they collect

And for them to work well; the person behind the controls must not only have a pilot’s licence as their claim to fame; but must have an intimate understanding of the industry for which they need to use the drone.

We have said for a long time that just being a drone pilot is not enough, because the skill in using drone technology for commercial applications goes way, way beyond just being able to fly them.

Finally, somebody seems to have listened.

In Zimbabwe, a drone training start-up has joined with a local university, to equip the latter’s students with drone skills they will surely need and put to good use once they are out in the corporate and industrial world.

Drone Solutions Academy announced the partnership with Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE), which it says will help the university’s graduates with a novel skillset that will offset existing gaps in the application of technologies in real life work scenarios.

Signed last month, the five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will culminate in the training of BUSE students to operate and fly drones.

This includes their acquisition of a Remote Pilot License (RPL) which is a Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) requisite license to operate drones in Zimbabwe.

“I think that we are drawing on the best of the private sector and its (Drone Solutions) is an institution that is futuristic in itself,” said Lazarus Dokora, Chairman of Communications in the Science Department at BUSE.

“Drawing these two together suggests that we are on the verge of a huge development for our university as well as for the country.”

Dokora added that this partnership, a first in the country, would be crucial to the university’s drive to educate rural communities on Artificial Intelligence and drone technology and how to integrate the two into everyday industrial operations.

BUSE is located in Bindura, the capital of Mashonaland Central Province (about 90 kilometres north east of Harare); which is the hub of the country’s agricultural industry.

Agriculture students at the university can now learn how to integrate drone technology into precision agriculture, just as wildlife management and environmental conservation students the same for their chosen industries.

In this regard, BUSE has already been to surrounding towns, including Guruve, Mt Darwin, and Mbire, on outreach education campaigns to spread digital awareness in the surrounding communities and the nation at large.

“The multiple functionalities of drone technology,” said the acting Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Dr David Makwerere.

“It feeds into agriculture, it feeds into mining, it feeds into journalism, it feeds into a variety of things. So; once we get to fully utilise this, we will certainly go a long way in fulfilling the vision and mission of the university, but more importantly in fulfilling the vision and mission of the nation and the continent and the world in general.

“This is an opportunity to learn theory and practice, but more importantly, you may recall that in the national skills audit, there were a lot of gaps; particularly in a technological perspective; that needed to be filled.

“The signing of this cooperation agreement is a very significant marker of progress to be made toward filling the national skills gap from a technological perspective.”

Nokuthula Matsikiti, General Manager and instructor at Drone Solutions, expressed her company’s delight at this breakthrough achievement, which she said offered a pathway for current and future students to explore their passions and aspirations.

“This is a very exciting opportunity and I am delighted to be a part of the pioneers of these exciting adventures,” Matsikiti said.

“Each and every young child from BUSE and the surrounding areas will be trained in this technology before they even graduate and that is an exciting issue.

“The sky is not even the limit, it is the playground when we are talking drones, when we are talking aeronautical navigation. For the girl-child out there, come and let us paint the skies pink.”

Said Dokora; “Notice that what we have also done is to create satellite BUSE friendship schools who will continue to benefit from the partnerships that the university has.

“We invest and it wouldn’t be surprising that in Mbire, we can spend a week providing the young people an appreciation of these new technologies.”

Currently, Drone Solutions provides the RPL training which lasts two weeks: one week of theory and the other week for practical training at its Drone Farm in the capital city Harare.