The world is now fully digitalized and computer literacy has become the norm. We have slowly moved from basic computer skills and ushered in the computer programming era. We want to make sure that as our students transition to higher education, they can be able to get this much-needed skill.
In our quest to achieve the above, we recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding and forged a partnership with DirectEd Development Foundation. DirectEd is a UK-based charitable organization on a mission to deliver evidence-based, highly scalable, and cost-effective coding boot camps and scholarships to under-resourced high-potential students in Africa, through the use of blockchain technology and decentralized identifiers. They so far have partnered with different top learning institutions in Kenya and Ethiopia. Some of the institutions in Kenya include Kagumo high school, Mang’u high school, and Maryhill girls high school. We are excited to be part of this partnership.
Through this partnership, our 2022 high school graduates will take part in a three-part programme that is repackaged from existing material into a structure that works for low-resource hybrid-learning settings and is offered by tutors from DirectEd. The first programme is the 1-week mobile-based coding course. This particular programme is based on open-source material from Harvard’s CS50 introduction to Python. It is done remotely which means that the students will make use of their phones and we will allow those who do not have access to a smartphone to come to the Elimu Hub and make use of the resources available in the computer lab. The team from DirectEd will also help the students to set up the necessary infrastructure for the stipend disbursement.
The second programme which is the main programme is a 12-week computer-based hybrid programme. Here, students will learn full-stack web development in the MERN (MongoDB, Express, React, Node) framework. This programme will also feature some guest lecturers hosting workshops on key soft skills such as acing job interviews and entrepreneurship, with the students studying for at least 40 hours a week. Lastly, the graduate programme. This programme is for students who will have successfully completed the coding programme, and it has two paths. One, entry into a longer full-time coding bootcamp or two, a 6-months internship with specialization in a particular skill while getting real-work experience with DirectEd’s tech partner companies.
For all the 3 programmes, our students need to have attained a specific threshold to move to the next. We will support our students through the help of our ICT personnel to ensure that we have as many students as possible moving up to the graduate programme. We would like to thank DirectEd Development Foundation for this life-changing partnership for our students and the people at Lido Nation, particularly Stephanie King, for being a central part of connecting us with them. We are excited to see our students transform their lives.