Overview of Training

Here is a description from Peace Corps Ethiopia of our first three months in country (January - April 2018).  During this time we will be "Peace Corps Trainees". 

Orientation (The First Few Days)

Upon arrival in the morning of January 21st, you will be taken directly to a hotel where you will stay for your first 6 days in Addis Ababa. The 6 days will be spent getting to know Peace Corps staff in orientation sessions, including medical and security sessions and several one-on-one interviews with the medical and programming team. Try to get some sleep on the plane!

Because language learning is essential to your success, in the first week you will start basic Amharic with your Language and Culture Facilitators (LCFs). After the completion of week 1 of PST and following interviews with your program manager, you will be assigned a regional placement. You will then begin to learn the predominant local language of your future region, which will be Amharic, Oromiffa or Tigrinya. We will take you to your PST homestay families in one of four local training communities, called community based training sites. The communities located approximately 130 kms from Addis Ababa.

Overview of Training

During your 12-week pre-service training, great emphasis is placed on developing and practicing skills needed for community integration and language acquisition as well as an introduction to important technical skills and knowledge needed for your work. You will reside with an Ethiopian homestay family beginning the end of the first week of training. The homestay is designed to give you opportunities to practice your language, cross-cultural communication and cultural integration, and will also expose you to the realities of living and working in an Ethiopian community. Having met all the requirements for service, you will be sworn-in on Friday April 13, 2018. You will proceed to your new community on Saturday April 14, 2018. Your first steps at upon arrival in your community will be communicated to you by your Program Manager at the end of PST.

Language learning comprises approximately half of your time in PST. During PST you will participate in technical sessions and practicum activities in the community based training sites. During week 7 you will receive your site placement, meet your future counterpart, and then travel to your future site for a visit during week 8 of PST.

After your visit to your site, you come back to your host family for the last three weeks of language training and take the final language exam. In week 12 all trainees will say goodbye to their host families and community based training sites and move back to Addis for the last week of closing sessions before swearing in.

Pre-Service Training is composed of six basic component areas:

1. Language training involves learning Amharic, Oromiffa, or Tigrigna. The language you will learn depends on the region of the country where you will be assigned for service, but all Volunteers will learn basic Amharic in the first few days of training. About 2/3rds of you will switch to a different language after you receive your regional assignments.
      Language learning is essential to your success as a Volunteer. If you are not able to obtain a minimum level of language proficiency by the end of PST, you will swear in under the condition you fulfill 10 hours of language tutoring each week during the first 3 months of service and will re-take the language proficiency test during in-service training at the 3-month mark of service.

2. Cross-cultural learning involves adapting to life in Ethiopia, learning who the people of Ethiopia are, their history, their values, and their traditions. Living with your host family will greatly assist you in this process. Cultural training also integrates safety and security topics which focus on personal safety and strategies you will use to remain safe while living with your host family and at your site as a Volunteer. All of these elements are integrated into your language and other training sessions.

3. Technical training will help you understand and be prepared for your future job (Improving Community Health in Ethiopia (ICHE) and Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture (NuSA.); how to adapt your skills to the needs of the communities and provides you with hands-on technical training to build the technical knowledge and skills you need to carry out your role as Health Volunteers and Agriculture Volunteers. 

4. Personal health training involves training to take care of yourself using preventive measures, with a belief that a healthy Volunteer is a happy and effective Volunteer.

5. Safety and security training provides you with information that will help you to live and work safely in Ethiopia. In this training you will learn helpful techniques to keep yourself safe within the local context.

6. Administration and core topics training deals with policies and procedures, and overall qualification criteria enabling you to become a Volunteer. You will also be trained on important tenets of the Peace Corps sustainable and participatory grassroots development philosophies and methodologies.

Sample Day

A typical day starts with breakfast at your homestay, followed by a walk to your language class. There you will have four hours of language learning with three to five other trainees and one language and cultural facilitator. Often, you will go home for lunch. Most afternoons you will walk to a place to meet for technical sessions and conduct practicums. You will be home by 7 pm for dinner with your family and to do homework. About once a week you will meet in large groups in conference hall for cores sessions, which include safety, medical, technical, administrative, cultural and development sessions.

All Peace Corps Volunteers and trainees in the world will be expected to fulfill the following Core Expectations:

In working toward fulfilling the Peace Corps Mission of promoting world peace and friendship, as a trainee and Volunteer, you are expected to:

• Prepare your personal and professional life to make a commitment to serve abroad for a full term of 27 months.
• Commit to improving the quality of life of the people with whom you live and work, and, in doing so, share your skills, adapt them, and learn new skills as needed.
• Serve where the Peace Corps asks you to go, under conditions of hardship, if necessary, and with the flexibility needed for effective service.
• Recognize that your successful and sustainable development work is based on the local trust and confidence you build by living in, and respectfully integrating yourself into, your host community and culture.
• Recognize that you are responsible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for your personal conduct and professional performance.
• Engage with host country partners in a spirit of cooperation, mutual learning, and respect.
• Work within the rules and regulations of the Peace Corps and the local and national laws of the country where you serve.
• Exercise judgment and personal responsibility to protect your health, safety, and well-being and that of others.
• Recognize that you will be perceived, in your host country and community, as a representative of the people, cultures, values, and traditions of the United States of America.
• Represent responsibly the people, cultures, values and traditions of your host country and community to people in the United States both during and following your service.