Google.org announces support for Umuzi to grow its African Coding Network by 2000 learners in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa
At the second “Google For Africa” virtual event, Niral Patel - the Director of Google Cloud in Africa - announced that Google.org would grant Umuzi funding to support 2,000 young people in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa. The support will enable these young people to access digital skills training and accelerate their professional careers in tech as part of Umuzi’s African Coding Network (ACN) initiative.
Umuzi has been piloting Grow with Google Professional Certificates with learners across Africa for the last year. There are currently 1,867 young people in training. 79% of them are women. 333 learners have already completed Professional Certificates and will be receiving support to become economically active in the tech industry through work experience and further learning opportunities.
“Our journey with Google started about a year ago, when we met with Tamilore Oni who supported our learners to get scholarships to access the Grow with Google programme. It’s been so encouraging to see how many like-minded people in this industry share our excitement and vision for unlocking opportunities for young people in Africa. ”
Umuzi founded the ACN to expand its impact across the continent. High quality online learning opportunities exist that can support young people to develop the digital skills required to participate in the growing digital economy. However, there are many local barriers that obstruct young people from accessing these learning to earning pathways. The ACN is creating a network of local training partners that have already solved some of these “last mile” problems.
The ACN adds value to these local partners and their communities of learners by supporting them to select the most in-demand learning pathways, access licences to high-quality learning material, and leverage our learner information systems to better track and support learners to complete their training and become economically active in the digital economy. The network of partners works together to share best practices and build capacity across the network, increasing every learner's chance of success.
Niral Patel announcing that Google.org would grant Umuzi and the ACN funding to support 2,000 across Africa at the annual Google For Africa event in October Africa.
Umuzi is thrilled to have the support of Google.org to continue this mission.
Google.org will support the ACN to achieve the following outcomes by July 2024:
Continue building a network of local training providers to support a further 2,000 young people across Africa to access digital skills training.
Specifically focus on women, displaced youth, and youth with disabilities.
Work closely with local training providers to provide wrap-around support to learners to increase course completion, employability and economic participation.
Scale systems and processes to be ready to reach more countries, training partners and youth across Africa.
The ACN intends to achieve significant impact by preparing young people with the digital skills they need to access high value roles in the digital economy. Digital careers like software development, data analytics, UI and UX design, IT support, project management, and digital marketing pay significantly higher salaries and make higher income tax contributions than other entry-level jobs like call centre agents.
One of the greatest challenges will be finding enough opportunities for these young people to become economically active after the programme. The ACN is addressing this risk by partnering with employers and job matching platforms in each country, as well as global tech platforms to help young people access remote work opportunities. This builds on Umuzi’s long history of partnering with South African employers to ensure its programmes match their needs, and offer learners a smooth transition to economic activity after the programme.
