SECTOR 4 4.9 Media professionals have access to training facilities offering formal qualification programmes as well as opportunities to upgrade skills. Various training institutions and facilities offer media training in Botswana. For the past eight years the University of Botswana has been offering a fouryear Bachelor of Journalism (Bjourn) degree. The university also began offering evening classes to enable practicing journalists to study further, but this failed as “media houses did not have the time to release them”. “The private media face financial constraints, so the incentive to send their staff on training is not so high.” There are also a number of private institutions within the country, such as Limkokwing University, a Malaysian institution with a branch in Gaborone, and the Gaborone Training Institution, which offer degrees and diplomas in subjects such as multi-media. It is alleged, however, that ‘qualified’ journalists from Limkokwing, “may have the papers but not the skills”. The media are also exposed to various short courses and professional seminars, including those offered by the Nordic-SADC Journalism Centre (NSJ). There is also “lots of training” offered to state media practitioners. MISA offers some ‘in-service’ media house training on specific issues, such as the ‘Hearts and Minds’, a US-sponsored project on HIV, where trainers would train journalists on emerging needs. MISA Botswana has also assisted the students of Kagiso Secondary School with the production of their newsletter. These students have been trained by the chapter on story writing and reporting. MISA has a joint project with ZAMCOM funded by American International Health Alliance (AIHA). In this one, ZAMCOM provides training while MISA Botswana organises media workers, or journalists for these trainings. It is an ongoing project where ZACOM trainers usually come to Botswana to conduct the training workshops. It is not an exchange. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER BOTSWANA 2011 61