Trensio Zulu, 45 years old, works for Zambia’s Ministry of Health as the health information officer and deals with its health management systems.

He has worked for the Ministry of Health for more than 10 years now. Over this time he has gained a lot of experience in the workplace but also through his IMIS education, as this gave him a new variety of skills.

He’s always had a great interest in computing, hence his role, however once he began working for the Ministry he knew it was important to improve his IT and IS skills. He therefore began looking around the colleges in his region to try and find the most suitable course.

The IMIS course was the best mix of IT and IS

“Reading between lines and after going through a number of syllabuses provided by the local colleges, l realised that it was only the IMIS syllabus that provided both IS/IT therefore I knew this was the course I had to choose,” he explains.

Trensio joined the National College for Management and Development studies in 2003, which was offering IMIS programmes and he strived to obtain his Foundation Diploma. He then decided to continue on to obtain the IMIS Diploma, which he achieved in 2006.

Managing a career and studies

“The delay was mainly because I was of course working full time and going to class so gaining study leave was quite difficult,” he explains. “I did manage to complete the Diploma though, something I’m very proud of,” he says. “There certainly were challenges throughout my education,” he continues. “Of course there were a few financial challenges, but it also affected my home life and a lot of my free time – and holidays - were spent studying.”

Having completed his Diploma, Trensio then considered taking on the IMIS Higher Diploma. So in 2008 he became a full-time student at the Zambia Centre for Accountancy studies.

Challenges faced

“Of course l had a lot of challenges this time around because time was so limited for me with regards to family issues. However the more l progressed with my studies, the more l was promoted at work, so I was encouraged to work harder,” he says.

Moving upwards – degrees and management

Bitten by the education bug Trensio made the decision to work towards a distance degree next and he begins his BSc in information systems management with Staffordshire University this September. He hopes this will widen his skill set and helped him gain more management focused roles – something he already seems to be doing in the workplace.

“This is the thing I will be most proud of achieving,” he continues. “It will certainly improve my professional career options. I aim to continue onwards and upwards after this too – I hope to complete my master’s programme in the not too distant future,” he concludes.