By Sumaila Ogbaje
Learnali, a leading open online course platform in Africa, and tech company, TechHerNG, have announced a new partnership to support 10,000 Africans acquire technical skills in their march towards a smart world, through education, empowerment and employment.
This was disclosed in a statement by the Communications Officer for TechHerNG, Mr Kelechi Ofim, on Saturday, in Abuja.
Ofim said that the two organisations were poised to reach a larger African audience who are enthusiastic about learning a tech skill through the strategic collaboration.
He disclosed that they expected to reach the audience at the upcoming Techify Africa 2021 Program powered by IBM Nation Digital Africa.
According to him, the Techify Africa 2021 program will help close the skills gap in Africa by upskilling individuals to become specialised and highly trained talents, enabling them to find more in-demand jobs.
Ofim said that the general public could learn tech skills with courses properly created by IBM for free, that include
coding, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, Blockchain, Data science and analysis, cybersecurity, and quantum computing.
“Upon completing every course and passing the quiz, learners will earn an IBM Digital Badge that is respected globally in the IT industry. This event will take place virtually and physically in different locations across Africa,” he said.
The Chief Technology Officer (CTO), at Learnali, Samfield Hawb, said the organisation was excited to work with TechHerNG on the Journey to impact 10,000 Africans.
Hawb said the two companies were navigating the fourth Industrial Revolution, multi-vendor and open source solutions as the norm, to provide best in class results.
He said that all technologies required people responsible for maintaining and implementing the solutions that provided the greatest value and highest risk to an organisation.
As technology becomes the de facto solution across all industries, the need for skills standardisations also becomes more crucial than ever, Hawb said.
Grace Attah, the Business Development and Partnership Officer at TechHerNG, lauded the collaboration with Learnali, saying that educating the youths was one of the main objectives of the company.
Attah noted that there were few qualified professionals in technology currently in Africa, especially amongst women and girls, saying that there was, therefore, the need to attract young people and women to tech careers.
“We must begin to understand that whoever doesn’t know how to deal with technology will become obsolete,” she said. (NAN)
