The Microsoft Africa Development Centre (ADC) and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Department of Computing have reviewed the university’s Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Bachelor of Computer Technology curriculum to make them more relevant to industry demands.
The new curriculum will impact the delivery of 128 units within the university’s Computer science and Computer technology courses. The curriculum is expected to start with the September 2023 students intake.
The updated curriculum will assist in preparing students for the demands of a rapidly changing technology industry by emphasizing practical skill development and simulating real-world experience within the classroom. In addition to a refreshed approach to traditional technological concepts, the reviewed curriculum will introduce new and innovative concepts, including Applied Machine Learning, Virtual Reality, Quantum Computing, and User Experience Design, as well as industry-standard tools at the education level to improve student’s familiarity with them as they enter the workplace.
Catherine Muraga, the Managing Director at Microsoft ADC said that they are delighted to have partnered with Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) in the curriculum review process and have their experts contribute specialized knowledge that will allow for tech industry-ready students and use of improved standards of teaching. Globally employable Kenyans boost Kenya’s attractiveness as a destination for technology companies looking to invest here. The startup ecosystem, local businesses, and entrepreneurs working on transforming technology will also benefit.
The curriculum review process is part of the ADC’s larger goal of catalyzing digital transformation by providing opportunities for skill and practical knowledge acquisition to equip Kenyans to be competitive in the global digital landscape.
“The review process has been extensive, with invaluable insights and recommendations from experienced industry experts that will add significant value to classroom instruction. We look forward to providing our students with best-in-class education that integrates practical skills building and theoretical understanding as they prepare for success in the technology industry,” said Dr Lawrence Nderu, Chairman, Department of Computing at JKUAT.
Similar curriculum review initiatives will be implemented at other institutions of higher learning as part of efforts to bridge the ever-present gap between industry and academia, particularly in the technology sector.
“We believe that by partnering with educational institutions, from primary school to the university level, we can help create a future workforce equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in a digital age. We look forward to working with other institutions of higher learning to develop curricula that will improve the whole technology talent pipeline and grow the pool of tech talent in the country to benefit the whole ecosystem,” added Ms Muraga.
Microsoft’s engineering arm, the Africa Development Centre is announcing a collaboration with Kenyan technology universities to review their curriculums and make them more relevant to industry needs as the centre ramps up its digital skilling efforts in the country.
As part of the program, Microsoft ADC has partnered with the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) to review its Computer Science degree program. The curriculum review program will also be extended to other universities in Kenya that have expressed interest, and across Africa.
The initiative is part of the ADC’s larger agenda to contribute to the Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa. Which aims to harness digital technologies and innovation to transform African societies and economies by 2030. The initiative also aims to address identified skill gaps in software engineering students during technical interviews, particularly in software engineering fundamentals. It also fits into the Kenyan government’s Digital Superhighway plan, which aims to put the country on the path to becoming the world’s digital workforce.
“The ADC is running multiple initiatives to improve the tech talent pipeline starting from primary school all the way to working to improve the skills of practicing professionals. As part of the skilling drive, the ADC is looking to improve tech-based curricula within local institutions of higher learning so as to reduce the skills gap between classrooms and the workplace,” says Irene Githinji, the ADC’s Student & Education Engagement Program Manager.
Microsoft says, while players in the technology sector are constantly on the lookout for new talent, they are frequently unable to hire directly from universities because students are mostly armed with theoretical knowledge at the expense of much-needed application skills in software engineering fundamentals. Also noting, a need has been identified to transition from paper examination to online assessment, as most students have never sat for coding exams via online assessment, as evidenced when they sit for the ADC’s coding interviews.
“Students pursuing STEM-related courses will benefit from the new curriculum because they will have access to updated resources, courses, and assessments. Additionally, updated curriculums with industry input will help students gain hands-on tech skills that will be useful throughout their tech careers,” adds Githinji.
Dr. Michael Kimwele, Director, School of Computing and Information Technology at JKUAT notes that the curriculum review partnership is not a first for Microsoft and JKUAT.
“Our collaboration with Microsoft has, over the years, helped to develop potential career pathways for students and enabled the institution to access more teaching resources. We have received industry feedback and guidance on our curriculum which has helped us to improve our teaching methods and content. The collaboration has also exposed our students to real-time industry jobs. For example, many students involved in incubator projects are often offered a role within the company after their graduation since they have had time to adjust to the company culture,” says Dr. Kimwele.
The Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa aims to provide a massive online e-skills development program to 100 million Africans per year by 2021, and 300 million per year by 2025, to provide basic knowledge and skills in digital security and privacy. The initiative is led and owned by African institutions and is intended to be embedded in African realities while unleashing the African spirit of enterprise and creativity to generate homegrown digital content and solutions while embracing what is good and relevant.
“We are also working closely with the government and the private sector to expand access to digital skills training across Africa, and some of our initiatives are already reaching out to schools to provide students with the skills they need to succeed in the workplace. The initiatives range from coding classes for young children and teaching basic computer skills to underprivileged individuals to highly technical learning opportunities such as the Game Of Learners hackathon, which helps university students fine-tune their skills by building real-world solutions under the supervision of industry professionals,” Githinji explained.
Githinji also emphasized the need to refine the quality of technology education in universities in order to better prepare students for a digitally enabled future.
Microsoft is introducing a new Skills for Jobs Learning Pathways program that brings free access to 350 courses and six career essential certificates. This program builds on the success of the Microsoft global skilling program which has since reached over 80 million people worldwide with digital skills. With the company seeking to increase access to digital and foundational skills.
In Kenya, the global skills program has impacted an estimated 189,000 people, with 4,471 Kenyans completing the Learning Paths through the initiative. The Microsoft Skills for Jobs Learning Pathways program is focused on ensuring that economic opportunity is inclusive. So that job seekers all over the world have access to the skills, technology, and opportunities they need to succeed in a changing economy.
“Digital transformation has accelerated across all industries, resulting in the creation of new tech and tech-enabled jobs and driving economic growth. However, Microsoft has discovered that skills alone are insufficient for people to obtain the jobs they desire, particularly in the most in-demand positions. People, particularly those changing careers, must be able to demonstrate these skills to hiring managers.”
The Microsoft Skills for Jobs Pathways provide people who have been excluded from the digital economy with in-demand foundational, role-based, and technical skills, certifications, and connections to jobs and opportunities.
As part of the new initiative, Microsoft and LinkedIn will provide free access to 350 new courses and easy-to-follow learning paths, as well as six Career Essentials Certificates for six of the most in-demand jobs. The courses will be available in eight languages, including English, French, and Arabic, to help job seekers showcase their skills to employers and land jobs.
Microsoft Skills for Jobs Learning Pathways
“Microsoft is helping learners prepare for tech and tech-enabled roles with new learning paths and certificates for some of the most in-demand roles in the digital economy including Administrative Professional, Project Manager, Business Analyst, Systems Administrator, Software Developer and Data Analyst,” explains Migwi. “To ensure a better fit for learners, the company has invested not only in unlocking content but also in developing content for each of the career essential certificate paths.”
Foundational Skills will be established through three new learning paths: digital literacy and productivity, soft skills, and entrepreneurship. For learners progressing from Foundational Skills to the next level, there are six career certificates available.
The courses combine the knowledge from experts in the field, Microsoft product expertise, and a purposeful building of introductory courses. All the courses are available on LinkedIn at opportunity.linkedin.com.
In addition, Microsoft-developed courses are also available on Microsoft Community Training (MCT) and in downloadable format for use on other Learning Management Systems (LMS) for partners. Microsoft is also collaborating with 200 nonprofits around the world, governments, intergovernmental organizations, foundations, and other private sector partners. It is estimated that by 2025, Microsoft will help train and certify 10 million people with new skills.
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Safaricom is partnering with technology sector partners such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon(AWS) to launch the Digital Talent Program to address talent supply shortage and mismatch and create a sustainable talent pipeline to position Kenya as the leading hub for tech talent in Africa. The program plans to upskill 1,000 participants based on the digital skills currently in high demand in its first year.
The Safaricom Digital Talent program seeks to develop digital skills in the market by taking a sustainable approach to creating a healthy digital talent pipeline. It will focus on nine priority skill areas; UI/UX design; Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning; IoT; Big Data and Analytics; Cyber Security; Cloud Computing; Fintech; Robotics Process Automation; and Software Engineering.
The program will be delivered through a hybrid approach including classroom learning, mentorship, and internships for the experiential part of the learning. It will also involve hackathons, fireside chats, guest lecture sessions, incubation, career fairs, annual awards, curriculum reviews, placements, and certifications.
We believe that Africa should not only be a consumer of technology but also a hub for local talent, says Catherine Muraga Microsoft Africa Development Center Managing Director. “We can make a contribution to shaping and innovating the world. Kenya has a huge talent pool of competent and capable developers. That is why Microsoft and other tech companies are setting up their Africa operations here“, she adds.
The Safaricom Digital Talent Program has 30 partners including Microsoft, Google, IBM, Huawei, Oracle and Dell. It also includes 6 Universities, 14 Training Partners, 5 Tech-Hubs and community organizations, 7 Government agencies and 14 industry players.
Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom CEO, notes the program is to position Kenya as the leading hub for tech talent in Africa.
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I’ve always wanted to improve my skills as a developer. I knew that the best people are at companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook. I’ve always wanted the kinds of challenges they represent. I always wanted to work with people who would wow me and teach me at the same time. When I heard that Microsoft had come to Kenya, I knew that “this is my chance”.
This is the story of George Maina, a Software Engineer at the Microsoft Africa Development Center (ADC-East) located in Nairobi, Kenya. He is one of the first hires of Microsoft and works on the Identity and Network Access team in Kenya.
Even though the ADC was an experiment the success of George’s team in the early days will go on to help Microsoft make investing more in the ADC an easy decision. The ADC has grown from 21 employees in three teams to over 400 in more than eight teams in three years. With Microsoft launching a 27 million dollar office facility to house the software engineers.
Geroge works for the Microsoft Graph onboarding team, which is the third team to be formed at the ADC. “Right now, we’re four people, we help teams within Microsoft to onboard onto Graph and to manage their Graph deployments. … My role is to develop tooling to make sure we can automatically link their API when they publish it to our repo.”
I think we were the very first team to join Identity here, and we all came on the same day. There were then three teams at Microsoft’s Africa Development Center (ADC) in Nairobi. Each team had around seven people, making a total of 21. One team came aboard just a week before my team. At that time, it was not really clear where ADC was going. But it turned out really well. We’ve gotten our footing and have developed specialized areas. Several teams are now owners of certain operations within Microsoft. ADC has grown to around 400 just here in Kenya alone. That’s a testament to how well ADC has performed.
I remember when you came to visit, Igor, you said that you’d evaluate the operation after a few years, that it was an experiment. I remember going home that night thinking, wow, what happens if this fails?
I’ve learned so much. The last two years have blown my mind. I love working here and really love Microsoft. Microsoft offers so many opportunities everywhere.
George Maina
Igor Sakhnov, Microsoft Corporate vice president of Identity and Network Access Engineering, talks with software engineer George Maina about his entrepreneurial journey and the beginnings of the Microsoft ADC. Click to read the full conversation.
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