The India-Cook Islands Centre of Excellence in Information Technology (CEIT) is a registered private tertiary provider located on Rarotonga at the University of the South Pacific Cook Islands Campus. CEIT was established through a bilateral agreement between the Government of India and the Government of the Cook Islands in May 2017 for the purpose of strengthening IT development, education and scholarship opportunities for Cook Islands citizens.

The Centre aims to deliver quality advanced certified training and scholarship opportunities to IT professionals in-country. These courses are designed to meet the skill needs identified by the government and private sector. CEIT also provides basic computer literacy training to office workers and business professionals with the aim to improve workforce productivity.

The Centre began offering courses to IT professionals in September 2019 starting with the Certificate course in Network Security, and then Linux Systems Administration. In June 2020 CEIT launched the country’s first Certificate Course in Cyber Forensics and Cyber Laws which attracted 25 eager students from both the private and public sector. In response to the increased demand for basic computer courses CEIT promoted the Certificate Course in Business Computing and the Office Automation course for business professionals and office workers.

Since CEIT was launched in September 2019 it has enrolled and certified over 150 Cook Islands residents. In addition to these microdential courses, CEIT has established afterschool and school holiday coding and robotics programmes for children and youths.

Community Programmes

Supporting youth in STEM and Robotics

In August 2019 the Centre of Excellence, University of the South Pacific and Tereora College collaborated to develop the country’s first Robotics Club. The aim of this initiative was to promote and encourage young people to consider education and career opportunities in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). In six weeks six students endeavored to design, build, program a robot which they would use to compete in the First Global Robotics Competition in Dubai. The national competition succeeded in generating interest from over 80 secondary students on Rarotonga, and the panel of 9 judges received over 70 robot design entries. The Cook Islands Robotics Team would compete against 189 countries and place 30th overall.

CEIT works with Private businesses to identify training needs and skills gaps in the workforce, and develops training programmes that meet those demands. Vodafone CI, CITC IT Manager Damon Enoka, and Te Aponga Uira were the top sponsors of the Cook Islands Robotics Club in 2019.

CEIT Facilities

CEIT is fully equipped with a brand new computer training lab, onsite library, video conference facilities for teaching and learning.

Certificates and accreditations

Certificate Courses delivered by CEIT are nationally accredited by the Government of India National Standards Qualification Framework (NSQF) of the National Skills Development Agency (NSDA) Government of India and in partnership with India European Union Skills Development Project.