Tumaini Magina, Elizabeth Msambila and Victor Ngowi, automation instructors from Pwani Regional Vocational Training and Service Centre in Tanzania, are currently upgrading their own skills, and how to teach them to others, at Sault College.
"We want to learn new technology, so we have come here to see it and implement it in our institutions," Magina told SooToday Monday in Sault College's state-of-the-art robotics lab.
"We are in the process of building new industries (in Tanzania), therefore we are preparing ourselves to teach people to work in those industries and boost our economy."
The three are teaching electronics on a level equivalent to Ontario's Grades 11 and 12 and first year of community college, explained Ron Chartrand, a Sault College electrical engineering technology professor.
"They need to be updated on the newest technology," Chartrand said.
"Robotics is part of it...it's an upgrade to their training for them to better understand all the workings of an industrial plant."
The three arrived in the Sault June 7 for a 12-day introductory visit.
Tanzania has relied heavily on agriculture and tourism, but the East African country now has mining, natural gas and food processing industries experiencing growth.
With a population of 51 million people, Tanzania has eight million students in elementary school, with that number reducing to one million students in high school, dwindling even more to 100,000 students in college.
However, with new political leadership that has made elementary education mandatory, it is anticipated the number of college students, all of them needing the latest skills, will eventually grow.
Sault College instructors and administrators, and their Tanzanian counterparts, will spend the next two to three years travelling to each others' countries to develop what will be improved college programs in automation for Tanzanian students.
The programs will range from a few months to three years in duration.
Sault College won a contract from Canada's federal government to train Tanzanian college teachers after first submitting a bid to administer the skills upgrade program in September 2015.
The program involves upgrading the skills of teachers from the college in Pwani and Arusha Technical College.
Chartrand was one of two Sault College professors, along with Ron Common, Sault College president, and Colin Kirkwood, Sault College vice president academic, to first visit Tanzania in February.
"We'll help the teachers develop their technical skills and, at the same time, we're helping them develop their curriculum development skills," Kirkwood told SooToday.
Sault College received approximately $800,000 in federal money for Tanzanian teacher training, travel costs and some equipment for Tanzanian schools, Kirkwood said.
But it's not about the money, he added.
It has more to do with promoting Sault College as a helper to countries with emerging economies and providing a learning and travelling experience for the college's administrators, instructors and students, Kirkwood said.
"The funding is a break even proposition, we're just spending the money the government gives us (to administer the program)."
"The big benefit for us at Sault College is that it enriches our faculty, it gives some of our faculty members a chance to experience an international project, and our administrators grow from interacting with other countries," Kirkwood said.
"We hope the project ends up as a relationship that goes on after the project is finished, there's a desire on the part of both schools to keep it active."
"There have been some indications there will be more projects coming for Africa and we'll have to assess whether or not there's an opportunity for us when their requests for proposals come out," Kirkwood said.
Sault College has helped out with previous educational training projects in other countries, such as assisting with an aircraft structural program in Mexico and a renewable energy program at the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic in Barbados.
Meanwhile, have the three visiting Tanzanian teachers enjoyed their visit to Sault Ste. Marie?
"Yes, we have," said Tumaini Magina with a smile.
"There are many beautiful things here, the river, the trees, your city is clean, very clean and well-arranged."
The three also took the opportunity to fly over the city as passengers in Sault College aviation program planes and travelled as far as Chippewa Falls, north of the city.