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Young African Leaders Initiative and Microsoft Africa Development Centre partner to improve youth digital skills

Young African Leaders Initiative and Microsoft Africa Development Centre partner to improve youth digital skills

by | May 4, 2023 | Africa, Africa Development Center, Microsoft, Microsoft Africa

The Microsoft Africa Development Centre (ADC) and the Young African Leaders Initiative Regional Leadership Centre East Africa (YALI) have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate to provide digital skills programs and solutions to young leaders in the region.

According to the MoU, the ADC will provide YALI participants with capacity-building opportunities in digital skills such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, access to its innovation hub at the Microsoft Garage and avail mentorship and training opportunities. YALI, for its part, will collaborate with Microsoft ADC to develop the digital skills programs and will avail training participants and its alumni for training and idea competitions. The YALI alumni will also seek to spread Microsoft’s digital literacy training to other youth.

Kenyatta University VC and Microsoft ADC MD shaking hands on MOU to bring digital skills to the Young African Leaders Initiative

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Catherine Muraga, the ADC Managing Director, noted that the partnership is another step in the organisation’s mission to improve digital skilling for African youth.

“Partnerships are a vital part of our mission as Microsoft to empower everyone to do more. YALI provides essential skills to build a better future, and we are excited to contribute to improving digital skills among their participants. Preparing young leaders with the knowledge to excel within an increasingly digital-first landscape is a great way to set the continent up for success within the global economy,” said Muraga.

Housed at the Kenyatta University for the East Africa region, YALI participants will benefit from skills-building programs co-created by ADC with the intention of improving their digital capabilities as part of their training to add more excellent value to society through sustainably impacting both public and private sector.

Prof. Paul Wainaina, the Kenyatta University Vice Chancellor, said: “The engagement between the Young African Leaders Initiative and the ADC is an opportunity to grow the digital skills of our trainees while augmenting the vision and goals of both YALI and the ADC. It is also a great opportunity to engage in designing training modules for our program’s current and future participants.”

The Africa Development Centre, Microsoft’s premier engineering arm in Africa, is already implementing various projects to improve digital skills, including the recently concluded Game of Learners university coding competition and several other initiatives from the elementary school level into the workplace.

“Our digital skilling efforts align with YALI’s vision of providing access to all emerging leaders regardless of socio-economic status. We are actively investing in creating and fulfilling opportunities for all Africans in the drive towards continental digital transformation,” added Muraga.

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Microsoft and African Development Bank boost Nigerian women in ICT with All-Female Coding for Employment cohort

Microsoft and African Development Bank boost Nigerian women in ICT with All-Female Coding for Employment cohort

by | Apr 17, 2019 | 4Afrika, General, Hour of Code, Microsoft Africa, Microsoft Nigeria

In July 2018 Microsoft, Facebook and The Rockefeller Foundation partnered with the African Development Bank to announce Coding for Employment. An initiative seeking to bridge the digital skills divide among African youths.

To kick start the program and to celebrate women’s month Microsoft and the African Development Bank(AfDB) have started a month long all-female ICT and digital skills bootcamp on two campuses(Centres of Excellence) in Nigeria. Gombe State University and Covenant University located in Gombe and Ogun States respectively.

“The all-female cohort of the Coding for Employment Program is to increase the number of female coders, accelerate gender equality and empowerment for women and girls in the digital era“.
The program “aspires that the all-female cohort will spark an interest in more girls and young women to pursue STEM. That’s encourage them to pursue realizations in STEM related fields“.

The ADB says “the programme acts as an entry point for young female participants who are keen to find jobs within the growing ICT sector. At the end of the course, participants may continue to a more advanced level or simply use their new skills to enhance their job searches.”

AfDB program Task Manager Coding For Employment, Uyoyo Edosio spoke at the launch of the pilot scheme at the Covenant University. She said “In the next 10 years, AfDB will be working at increasing ICT Centres of Excellence in the continent. Creating over 1.9 million jobs. We are building a whole value chain from this launch”

160 young women have ben selected to participate in the month-long all-female coding class in Nigeria.

The partnership between Microsoft and the African Development Bank will continue to focus on increasing the participation of underserved youth and women while equipping youth across Africa with the skills needed to fill jobs now and in the future,” – Ghada Khalifa, Director of Philanthropies for the Middle East and Africa

Under the program so far Microsoft and the AfDB have trained 555 participants in a 3 day Hour of Code campaign. Microsoft has also trained 80 instructors in Nigeria and 60 in Kenya to deliver the basic ICT skills material. The Afbd will be launching an aggregated online training and talent portal with content from LinkedIn Learning.

The coding for employment program, still on a pilot scheme will be rolled out at 14 centres of excellence across Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Ivory Coast and Senegal.

?: Covenant University