U.S. tech giant Google wants to train more than 100,000 African developers and is offering 30,000 scholarships for Africans through its Google Developer Scholarship program.
The company plans to partner with Andela, a Nigerian startup based in New York which trains and outsources African engineers and coders to work for global firms, and Pluralsight, a Utah-based online platform for technology and developer training, according to a press release.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 7: Tayo Oviosu
Jamarlin Martin catches up with Tayo Oviosu at SXSW 2018. Oviosu is the Founder and CEO of Paga, the leading mobile payments company in Nigeria.
In 2018, the search engine firm trained 10,000 African developers through its scholarship program, BusinessInsider reports.
By 2034 Africa is expected to have the largest working-age population in the world, a workforce of 1.1 billion people.
Digital skills training is fundamental to providing jobs for Africans in the future.
This initiative recognizes that challenge and features a learning curriculum designed to help developers become certified in Google’s Android, Web and Cloud technologies, Ventureburn reports.
Google certifications are developed based on a job-task analysis that tests learners for skills employers need developers to have in these sectors. This makes the graduates highly-employable in a growing tech sector.
Investment in African tech startups reached a record $1.2 billion in 2018, double the previous year, according to research by VC fund Partech Partners.
Applications for the web and Android developer tracks and for a course towards becoming a Google Cloud engineer, are available through training partner Pluralsight.
Some of those who complete the Google scholarship may be offered an opportunity to join Google partner company Andela as a software engineer.
In January former U.S. Vice President Al Gore’s investment firm, Generation Investment Management, led a $100 million funding round in Andela, Bloomberg reported.
In September 2017 Google launched a mentorship program focused on supporting African tech entrepreneurs with a new Google Launchpad space in Nigeria, according to IOL.
In March 2019 Google announced the launch of 18 new Womenwill chapters across sub-Saharan Africa, boosting efforts that have already seen the tech giant training around 1.5 million women across the continent, according to Ventureburn.
