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This year, Andela celebrated 10 years of impact. As part of that celebration, we’re looking back on the training and scholarship programs the Andela Learning Community has provided to African technologists over the past decade.
Google, Andela, Pluralsight and Udacity Partner
With a shared mission to empower youth in Africa and scale them up to thrive in a digital economy, Google and Andela, supported by curriculum partners Pluralsight and Udacity, set out to train 100,000 learners in five years via the Google Africa Developer Scholarship (GADS) program.
Through the GADS program, participants upskilled in Android Application Development, Google Cloud and Web Technologies, and learned best-in-class solutions to technological challenges.
Students participated in the training between 2017 and 2022, and were provided with learning resources, access to career growth workshops, and connections toa community of like-minded peers.
Building Confidence For Innovation and Impact
Within the learning community, participants had access to over 2,000 mentors; experts in Google Cloud or Mobile Android technologies, dedicated to guiding and supporting learners through their training. There were also peer learning groups to discuss and exchange ideas with like minds.
The program enabled aspiring engineers to kick-start their careers in tech or advance their knowledge in Google Cloud, Android, Mobile web services, product design and other areas of computing to make an impact in their current fields.
Why Do Digital Skills Matter?
The World Bank projects that by 2075, one-third of the world’s population and the working-age population will be African, and the workforce will grow exponentially in the coming decades. However, a recent report by the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution found that many countries in Africa lack the digital skills required to leverage the recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and other technologies.
Google and Andela’s investment in scaling up African youth through the GADS program puts them on the right path for earning and utilizing digital skills, which experts have suggested are a critical foundation for Africa’s fourth industrial revolution.
According to the African Development Bank, advances in ICT will create opportunities for employment and employment promotion measures for African youth, who in turn can further drive innovation.
Connecting Brilliance with Opportunity
To complement skills learning, finding opportunities to utilize what’s been learned, potentially build on learned skills, and contribute to an organization's business objective is a critical aspiration for many learners.
With this in mind, Google and Andela developed a program model that created opportunities for learners to be connected to real-world job opportunities to flex their skills. 88% of learners who completed the GADS program were connected to internship opportunities with employers, mentors, and other industry professionals.
A Chemical Engineer who joined the program shared his plans to use the knowledge gained to step into a junior full-stack web developer role. One learner within the program who created apps was able to implement the knowledge gained, resulting in a userbase increase of over 2000%. He also helped clients generate over $5,000 a month in revenue.
Measuring Impact
During the program period, over 12,000 projects were developed by learners, in addition to many success stories resulting from the program’s impact. A medical doctor who joined the program with no prior knowledge of IT or coding saw the future of technology in medicine and took up the challenge to receive basic knowledge about coding with hopes of building an app that provides information on disease prevention.
These are just a few of the many success stories from the program. There is no doubt that the GADS program created great impact for youth in Africa.
The unifying mission and driving force for Google, Andela, and the program participants was the potential of the learners to absorb their training, leverage the opportunities gained, and move forward to build world-class products and solutions for the future. The mission is well underway, and throughout Africa, and across the globe, 100,000 highly skilled technologists are providing innovative solutions to change the world.
Learn how you can partner with Andela to take your career to new heights.
