Together with UNICEF, we have embarked on a journey to create digital upskilling pathways for 600 young people, focusing on women, displaced youth and young people with disabilities in the Eastern and Southern African Region
In a three part project to select, train and accelerate the professional journeys of young people, Umuzi and the African Coding Network continue to add to the energy of addressing unemployment and opportunities available for marginalised communities in Africa.
The project has two pools of focus, the first being a pilot programme to uplift 50 displaced youth in Uganda with resources and support to kick-start their careers in the digital space. A further 550 young people in the Eastern and Southern African Region (ESARO) are being supported with a less intensive yet still highly valuable online programme.
Selected learners have been moving through a course of their choice from the below skillsets with Grow with Google or Meta Blueprint:
Project Management
Data Analytics
UX Design
IT Support
Digital Marketing & E-Commerce
IT Automation with Python
Social Media Marketing
Marketing Analytics
The value that these organisations have identified lies in the highlighting and creation of courses in particularly high-value, digital careers that have exponential growth potential in the ever-evolving modern world.
“By the end of October, 3185 learners had completed the application process with 62% of applicants being female. After the process of narrowing this number down to 50 learners in Uganda and an additional 550 in the ESARO region, an incredible 76% identified as female! ”
Meet Shalom Ayodele, a young Nigerian woman who has excelled through our programme and is now working as an intern UI Designer at DIDx.
Shalom is one of the many young people in Africa that have been able to fundamentally shift their narratives in the world, with support from organizations like UNICEF and the important work we are doing together.
The power of community connection and social capital
The magic within this process exists in how, through partnering with ICT centres in Uganda, we were able to identify and reach out to 328 displaced youth living in Uganda. Of these young people, 111 applied to be a part of the 50. The partnership with these centres helped us to identify young people in the community that would benefit from this programme, and further enable them with the technical resources they would require for their upskilling.
What makes this project special has been the innovative routes we’ve needed to take in order to move through the contextual issues that displaced youth face, like a lack of resources including smartphones that would be required in order for them to embark on any digital upskilling journey.
Partnering with ICT centers in Uganda has not only addressed this critical issue, but created space for connection and networking. Instead of seeing this as a clear end of the road, more organizations are involved and the community is richer for it. It has been so inspiring to see people coming together in the roll out of this programme.
Patrick Kumi is another incredible young learner living in Uganda who has successfully moved through our programme and the Data Analytics course with Grow with Google. Patrick is a youth advocate as well as a data analyst, digital marketing and e-commerce specialist.
Where to next?
Following the completion of their certificates, we will be running a Design Thinking sprint with the 250 top performing learners along with an Employability Sprint, imparting important soft-skills essential for entering workspaces including CV and portfolio building and communication skills.
We’ll be documenting the progress of this project as things roll out and cannot wait to share more of the details and outcomes.
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