Bootcamp
@iLabAfrica partners with VMware International Ltd to Enhance Digital Skills in Africa
Today at the Innovating Education In Africa Expo 2019, held in Botswana VMware international Ltd announced the expansion of the VMware IT Academy: Virtualize Africa programme.
As part of its expansion, VMware announced a Memorandum of Understanding between VMware International Ltd and Strathmore University – @iLabAfrica Centre, Kenya.
The overarching goal is to empower the fast-growing, young African population to enter the digital workforce with confidence and expertise, helping to address the skills gap and
supporting innovation and entrepreneurship across the continent.
Through the VMware IT Academy: Virtualize Africa programme, we are collaborating with key stakeholders across academia, government and industry to equip African students with the technical skills and certifications required to succeed in the digital economy.
Strathmore University in Kenya has built an international reputation for its world-class
academic teaching, professional training, and research in technology. Working with VMware IT Academy: Virtualize Africa, the University has already begun integrating a range of VMware developed courses into its curricula that cover topics such as virtualisation, cloud computing, AI and IoT. This is facilitated through subsidised software licenses and certification vouchers from VMware.
@iLabAfrica, a Centre of Excellence in Research and Innovation in Information
Communication Technology at the University, is spearheading the rollout with 20 trainers and over 100 students at the University participating. The students will benefit from access to high-quality learning online resources, hands-on lab experiences to develop technical skills, and the opportunity to achieve industry-recognised VMware certification to complement their chosen fields of study.
“We are delighted to be part of VMware IT Academy: Virtualize Africa. It provides a wonderful opportunity for our students to gain technical skills and industry-recognised VMware certifications, helping to jumpstart their careers with the best knowledge and skills of international standards. Our shared goal with VMware is to become the VMware IT Academy regional lead for East Africa, training lecturers and students from Strathmore and other universities plus facilitating their participation in the programme. Increased access to this type of education and training for students is a critical part of Africa realising the potential of its youth and a prosperous Africa,” said Dr. Joseph Sevilla, Director @iLabAfrica, Strathmore University.
“Skills development is recognised as a key component for economic growth and prosperity.VMware IT Academy: Virtualize Africa helps educational institutions align curricula with the skills needed for the labour market, thereby building the right talent for Africa’s jobs of today and tomorrow. . Our discussions to form a strategic collaboration with Strathmore University is a significant milestone in this program, and will bring new skills and opportunities to its students, and in the future to many more young people in East Africa,”said Thomas MacKay, Senior Director for Global Strategic Programs, VMware.
THREE WINNERS UNVEILED DURING THE SHELTER TECH NAIROBI INNOVATION WEEK COMPETITION.
@iBizAfrica- Strathmore University and Pangea Accelerator partnered with Shelter Tech Kenya, a first of its kind in Africa, is a six-month milestone-based accelerator program supporting early stage businesses and scale-ups in the affordable housing sector covering: renewable energy, waste management, housing & construction technologies and products and water & sanitation. The program is supported by Habitat for Humanity International’s Terwilliger Centre for Innovation in Shelter and implemented by BDO EA and Pangea Accelerator in partnership with @iBizAfrica, Strathmore University. These partners came together to organize a startup competition which aims to support disruptive innovation and provide a platform for growth in the urban tech space as part of the Nairobi Innovation Week 2019.
The Shelter Tech Nairobi Innovation Week competition was held on 11th of June at Metta. The competition had attracted 61 applicants. Three business start-ups were declared winners out of the ten that pitched their products and business concepts before a panel of four judges.
The three winners of the competition got an all paid opportunity to travel and pitch at Oslo Innovation Week with a goal of finding sponsors and funds to increase the size and outreach of their company as well as having a platform to gain new markets and experience in the business’ world of competition.
Present during the event was the Norwegian Ambassador to Kenya, Elin Bergithe Rognlie who acknowledged how technology has changed the way we do things and the increased role of women in creating tech-based business startups. Also present were representatives from Strathmore University, ICT Norway, Pangea Accelerator and Habitat for Humanity among others.
The three startups will have a chance to pitch at the Oslo Innovation Week in Norway later in the year.
The business startups that won included:
Arigiene Limited Company;
The founders, Anna Kadari is a second year Economics student at Kenyatta University and her co-founder Frank Mwakitakula is a fourth year Economic Finance Student at the same University. Their product solves the problem of toilet bowl and water splash back while also serving other purposes including absorbing bad odours and acts as a toilet freshener.
Gjenge Makers Limited
Gjenga Makers Ltd is a social enterprise based in industrial area recycling waste plastic into strong and artistically expressed construction products including paving bricks, paving tiles and hatches.
Escon Leather Creations
This startup company was founded by Victor Nzau, a Diploma Graduate from Animal Health and Industry Training Institute in Kabete, Nairobi.
Escon Leather Creations manages waste and discarded low grade hides and skins which are pollutants to the environment. As a value addition, they use vegetable tanning processes that are environmental friendly.
SAFARICOM HOSTS HACKATHON COMPETITION IN STRATHMORE
Strathmore University this week hosted Safaricom PLC hackathon competition that had up to 240 participants. The event aimed at fostering solutions around Android Developer, Solution Architects, Big Data Engineer among others.
The Safaricom funded program, co-implemented by @iLabAfrica was an open book competition used to identify technical practical competencies. For this event, the standard pass mark was 75% which was earned after a practical test was done, the examined interrogated and given the chance to modify their work. Those who were Successful received an oral interview invitation where they would be recruited to work for Safaricom in the IT department, their employment level being determined by their total score in both the hackathon and the oral interview.
According to Peter Opiyo, the IT Workforce, Performance and Reporting Manager in the Digital IT Department – Technology Division at Safaricom, theoretical interviews do not always yield desired output and so there is need to explore various technical skills through exhibited practical sessions – hackathons.
“Because of the high demand of techies at Safaricom and the IT market at large, there’s need to recruit the best in practice. Most of the best developer employees we have here in the IT department are those hired from hackathons.” said Peter.
Call for participants was issued out through the Safaricom career portal, website and social media platforms.
Women in Tech 2nd Cohort Launched
Standard Chartered in partnership with @iLabAfrica this week launched the start off a search for a second cohort of women-led technology startups which will see five entrepreneurs win Sh1 million each.
The Standard Chartered Women in Technology Incubator Kenya is Africa’s leading women in tech incubator, aligning with calls for more diversity in technology and for more opportunities for women to develop entrepreneurial and leadership excellence.
Through the Women in Tech Incubator, 10 businesses will benefit from mentorship and seed funding.
The program combines world class startup support with local and international experience to provide Africa’s most competitive and attractive startup incubation program focusing on immersive learning, mentorship, building and growing Africa’s next iconic startups taking on the continent’s most relevant challenges and opportunities.
Shortlisted start-ups will be selected to go through a 12-week incubation period after which five will win Sh1 million.
“The Women In Tech Incubator programme will help identify, grow and bring to the market unique business ideas and change the fortunes of women entrepreneurs and business owners in Kenya,” said Public Services, Youth and Gender Affairs Cabinet Secretary Margaret Kobia while speaking during the launch on Monday.
Last year, the five businesses which received seed funding were solar cooler company Maziwa Plus, e-commerce platform Heri Online, insurance information app Bismart, career solutions hub Zydii and Africa Solutions.
Some of the winners have gone on to attract funding from local and international investors to scale up their businesses.
How to APPLY
- be a woman
- be the CEO with equal or majority ownership in the company
- 18 and above
- of Kenyan nationality
- Agribusiness
- Education
- ICT
- E-Commerce
- E-Health
- Fintech
- Three months incubation at Strathmore University’s leading businss and innovation incubator
- Mentorship from world class mentors
- Coaching by top business, technology and legal professionals
- Immersive, world-class entrepreneurship curriculum
- Networking and exposure to expand your business networks
- USD 10,000 or KES 1,000,000 equity-free grant seed funding for the top 5 winners
- 9 months ongoing support from Standard Chartered and @iBizAfrica to assist with go-to market and scale.
- Participants must be physically available to attend the program over the three months incubation
- Participant accommodation costs are not catered for
For more information Click here
To Apply click here
@iLabAfrica Hosts the MIT Open Mic Africa Summit
Hosted by Strathmore University, @ilabAfrica this year hosted the MIT Open Mic Africa Summit, is an annual summit that celebrates the goals championed by the Legatum center in MIT alongside the Mastercard Foundation.
The peak of the summit is the award of the Zambezi prize, an annual prize for two hundred thousand dollars in in cash prizes and a chance to attend an entrepreneurial boot camp hosted in MIT. The prize is awarded to an entrepreneurial venture that incorporates financial inclusion through both financial technology but also creates social change. Megan Mitchell, who appeared on behalf of the Legatum center emphasised that the end product of the venture had to be impactful on the society. Over 500 applications were received for the Zambezi prize and in narrowing down the applicants, certain criteria, as explained by Ashley Onyango, the program manager for the Mastercard Foundation had to be met. This included the combination of problem solving with economic growth in Africa, providing accessible, affordable financial inclusion to the unemployed and underemployed, and assisting in lifting people out of poverty. The boot camp, a part of the prize, is instrumental in shaping the leadership and entrepreneurial skills of the prize winner as well as enable them to create a network to better scale their venture.
This year’s event was marked with vison talks, short pitches and of course, the promotion of the ten finalists in the running for the Zambezi prize and its award, at the conclusion of the event.
The vision talks focused on entrepreneurs that discussed not only their successes, but also their losses and the lessons that stemmed from them. Rachel Balshan, the Deputy CEO of MFS Africa, detailed her experience in building the company and learning how to make decisions that better shaped the future of MFS Africa and led them more clearly to their goals.
In addition, up and coming entrepreneurs were given a chance to pitch their ideas for ninety seconds, enabling them to get a platform and potential connections to drive their entrepreneurial ventures.
The finalists of the prize included agricultural ventures that targeted smallholders and enabled them to access services such as investment capital, access to small loans and micro finance, real time agricultural education, access to household goods for women and the opportunity to infuse waste collection with a redeemable point system.
The winner of the prize was WALA, a venture set up to bring digital banking to underbanked consumers in Africa using a combination of cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence.
In all, the summit exemplified the overarching goals of the prize and spurred discussion about how to create innovative, financially inclusive technology that will spur the growth of smallholders in Africa.
Kids holiday boot camp – Developing the future
Kids holiday boot camp – Developing the future
For the last two weeks @iLabAfrica has held a 2 week kids holiday boot camp for over 30 children from various schools around Kenya as they prepare to resume back to school.
The kids holiday bootcamp, in partnership with digikids, is a two week per school holiday training for children between the ages of 5 and 17 years old in Information Technology and related areas such as robotics and electronics, web design, and web security. The training is hosted by iLAB and based in Strathmore University.
With a rapid rise in the use of and development of technology, there is a corresponding need to gain an understanding in IT from a young age. Started in 2014, the programme sought to address this need and build basic skills and besides this, takes into consideration other factors such as the existing curriculum of the students in which they need more practice, skills or training as well as the need in existing job markets for an understanding of IT. The programme also provides an excellent background for those who wish to study IT further in university and creates a curiosity in IT and provides young children with a creative outlet to learn and develop their interests.
The training divides the children into three age grades, 5-9, 10-12 and 13-17 and teaches them based on their existing skill and knowledge while maintaining the same overall content. The younger students learn by pre-programmed mechanisms while the older students are encouraged to develop and design their own code and have a larger overall project that demonstrates their progress in the programme.
This holiday boot camp enables the students enjoy an enabling environment and are provided with ample computer time to pursue interests outside the curriculum, under the supervision of their instructors. Shiro, a class four student in the programme mentioned that she particularly enjoys the facilities and making new friends as she has an interest in learning how to create a webpage and advertise products as well as enable her to produce better schoolwork.
For more information on the course kindly visit www.ilabafrica.ac.ke or contact Sharon on Email: sanyanga@strathmore.edu Phone number: 0729876680
Internet Safety Bootcamp by DigiKids
Digikids has partnered with @iLabAfrica to bring you various bootcamps that will be focused on training children in digital literacy that will enable them to create technology that works for them, their communities and the world at every stage of their lives and have fun while doing it
Today’s world is dominated by technology and software is its language. This trend can only grow in the future where technology will permeate every aspect of life. Digital literacy is the next-gen literacy and computational thinking is the next-gen thinking of the tech rock stars of the future. The future belongs to those who know how to use this language as creators and innovators to shape the world.
Digikids achieves this goal through:
- Developing computational thinking as a technique for logical thinking and problem solving
- Teaching coding as a tool for creating innovative solutions though fun and easy to learn visual programming languages
- Sensitization on how to interact with technology, especially the internet, safely and securely
- Encouraging hardware invention through easy to use littlebits™ electronic building blocks that use magnetic circuits to create thousands of projects.
Internet Safety for Kids
Digikids has partnered with (ISC)2 Kenya Chapter to build a strong information security culture in our students to enable them become responsible digital citizens. Our internet safety and security education lessons are incorporated into each of our programs so as to bring cyber security information down to a level that children can understand. The training teaches children how to protect themselves online and become responsible digital citizens which allows them to feel comfortable visiting their favorite websites and playing their most challenging online games.
August Bootcamp.
Digikids will be running a bootcamp @iLabAfrica, Strathmore University from 15th to 19th August where students will learn various things including:-
- Coding of mobile apps and games
- Hardware and Robotics
- Problem Solving Skills
- Logical & Computational Thinking
- Web design
- 3D animation
- Child Online Protection (internet safety for kids
Follow @iLabAfrica on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook.
The information was first published on the digikids website.
