Africa’s youthful population is often touted as a major advantage for the continent. Its growing labor force holds the promise of significant growth opportunities. This young and increasing population present an unprecedented opportunity to rapid development. However, challenges to reaping these potential gains, and achieving greater shared prosperity remain.
In Nigeria, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reports a youth unemployment rate of 14%. This staggering number of under-engaged youths is largely due to a lack of adequate skills required to fit into the job market. Nigeria’s current educational system is poorly equipped to cater to the 1.5M+ yearly volume of applicants. The 150 universities operating in Nigeria can accommodate only 600,000 students at any given time. With an unskilled population that far exceeds this, there is a large amount of human capital going untapped. To maximise the economic potential of this rising working-age demographic, Nigeria needs to shift its focus to skills-based employment.
At the beginning of 2017, the Nigerian tech ecosystem had a valuation of $2 billion, making it the largest in Africa. The federal government budgeted over nine billion naira to spend on foreign software this year alone, enough to create 2000 well-paid local technology jobs. Numerous countries have more than $10 billion (cumulatively) in unclaimed tech wages also due to this lack of talent to fill roles. Software engineering skills, particularly in web and app development, are consistently in high demand. For skilled tech professionals, the world is their proverbial oyster.
The New Economy Skills Accelerator (NESA) by Makers is on a mission to equip young Nigerians with the skills that enable them to participate in today’s digital economy. They prepare students, unemployed graduates, part-time and full-time professionals for rewarding careers in tech or high-growth entrepreneurial activities. They achieve this by ensuring their students learn the most relevant skills face-to-face from practicing software development professionals while helping them build a portfolio of relevant work.
Currently, they offer two courses:
Their Full Stack Web Development (FSWD) course is an intensive, three-month, full-time introduction to design and web applications. Students will be taught essential software development skills so as to leave the program with a firm grasp of HTML/CSS, JavaScript, and PHP/SQL as well as exposure to frameworks such as ReactJS, Laravel, and Bootstrap.
The second course – Web Development Fundamentals (WDF) – is a one-month course designed to help students gain a basic understanding of the languages and frameworks of web development. Participating students will be drilled in computational problem solving and the basics of HTML/CSS, and JavaScript. Graduates will possess a solid foundation on which they can learn more sophisticated programming disciplines in the future.
The total fee for the FSWD course is N350,000 payment of which can be spread over the three months. The one month WDF program is a single payment of N150,000.
Other benefits of NESA include:
- Small class size ensuring optimum attention
- Conducive learning environment
- Access to educational content
- Career support
Admission into both courses is ongoing with classes set to begin next month (October ’17) at the NESA campus in Yaba, Lagos. Applications are open at
www.nesa.makers.ng/apply until the end of September. Only 8 spaces are left, to be filled on a first-come, first served basis.
Find out more: www.nesa.makers.ng/programs
We are also seeking software partners. Let us develop your web or mobile application.
Our experienced engineers will own the process, while our students will contribute as part of
their learning experience.
Contact us:
www.nesa.makers.ng | hello@makers.ng | +234 903 484 3983
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This article was first published on 15th September 2017
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