Opportunities
Opportunities
Internships
AfricaRice has a long track record of hosting, supervising and supporting individuals pursuing a degree in agricultural science or aiming to gain more work experience. Our students and interns come from all around the world, with the majority of them based in Africa.
Graduate Research Internships: AfricaRice scientists contribute to various PhD, MSc and agricultural engineering degree programs by co-supervising students’ field research and theses on rice-related topics. Our graduate research projects always contribute to one of our R4D projects to ensure alignment with AfricaRice’s research priorities and the delivery of demand-driven outputs and impact.
Through these degree programs and joint implementation of research projects, AfricaRice strengthens its relationships with higher education institutions within and outside Africa. This collaboration enhances the implication of universities and agricultural schools in the development of the African rice sector and gives students ‘real world’ research experience.
Non-degree Internships: Regularly, AfricaRice hosts higher education degree-holders for on-the job training periods of up to one year. Each intern is associated with an AfricaRice professional who supervises and mentors him/her. In 2007, AfricaRice launched a special Post-master Internship Program to increase the employability of MSc graduates. It is a two-year internship program open to 25 to 35-year-old applicants who originate from a rice producing country in Africa. The program is based on the sponsorship of young scientists by donors and their respective governments.
Our internships provide young graduates with the opportunity to acquire more experience in the field of rice R4D and related corporate services, to develop the ability to work in an international environment and to provide future employers with a pool of competent candidates.
AfricaRice offers a stimulating, multidisciplinary and multicultural environment where you can develop your research and interpersonal skills. If you are interested, please contact AfricaRiceHR@cgiar.org.
Group Courses
Our courses cover a wide range of topics in the areas of rice and seed production, good agricultural practices, rice processing and value addition, small-scale mechanization, impact assessment, value chain and gender analysis, marketing and entrepreneurship. Their content and format are specifically tailored to the audience – higher education students, in-service staff of national research, extension and development institutions as well as individuals from the private sector and farmers groups.
As relevant, our courses are developed in collaboration with national and international partners from the public or private sector. They combine, in-class, in-field and in-lab training modules with a balanced mix of lectures and practical hands-on training. Courses are delivered by subject-matter experts from AfricaRice and its network using active (participative and collaborative) learning methods.
Short duration courses are organized on station at AfricaRice and at the action sites in different countries while season-long training is conducted at the Regional Training Center located in Saint Louis, Senegal.
As a long-term strategy and to multiply the effect of our training courses, we prioritize a ‘training of trainers’ approach and encourage the establishment of a community of practices.
Between 2014 and 2018, more than 25,000 people (36% women) benefited from our courses.
Distance Learning
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AfricaRice venture in distance learning started in 2015 following the initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to found “Green Innovation Centres for the Agriculture and Food Sector” in several African countries, including Benin. The Benin-based Green Innovation Center has worked with AfricaRice to address the upscaling of agricultural innovations and rural communities’ access to a range of services, through youth training and employment. This joint project mainly focused on training and coaching young graduates of agricultural technical colleges to learn practical skills of how to properly work with farmers as service providers and extension agents or to start their own business in the agriculture and food sector.
Our e-learning platform has been created to reach rapidly a large number of beneficiaries located in distant areas. The platform hosts online courses on basic agricultural topics (including rice-related topics) as well as business and entrepreneurship courses. It allows self-paced learning, chapter-based testing to check learning and progression from basic to specialized courses. The courses are designed to maximize understanding and learning for an internet-savvy but not necessarily academic audience. Currently, more than 50 courses are freely available on the platform with the possibility to study them without continuous internet connection on any mobile device.
After the end of the joint project within the framework of the Green Innovation Centre in Benin, a startup specialized in digital learning, AFRIQUe-learning, is managing AfricaRice’s e-courses through a contractual arrangement.
Since its inception, more than 8000 people have registered on AfricaRice e-learning platform. To follow our e-learning courses, browse https://classes.afrique-learning.com/
NARS Visiting Scientists
Our NARS Visiting Scientists program offers NARS scientists from African research and development institutions and universities the opportunity to undertake research at AfricaRice in areas where long-term recruitment may not be necessary or to provide interim support for specific scientific disciplines. This program also enables national scientists to interact and collaborate more closely with our research teams on joint projects and topics of mutual interest.
In addition to building synergies and strengthening the capabilities of national scientists, the NARS visiting Scientists Program helps creating personal bonds between the scientists which facilitates collaboration and experience sharing.
All NARS Visiting Scientists positions are filled by nomination from NARS Directors or Deans of Universities. Nominees should be full-time staff in their respective NARS Institutions, and the NARS agree to the secondment of the services of these nominated scientists for a period of up to 12 months.
If you are interested in joining our NARS Visiting Scientists Program, please contact AfricaRiceHR@cgiar.org
Announcements
To better connect the demand and supply for training opportunities in agricultural research and education for the benefit of Africa, we advertise calls for applications to scholarships, fellowships, training courses, young scientists research grants from AfricaRice and elsewhere.
For any queries concerning a call for applications from another organization than AfricaRice, please contact directly the host organization.
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