Africa Week boost youth coding skills

Coding is seen as a vital skill for the next generation and yesterday, the Cape Town Science Centre hosted Africa Code Week.

The workshop focuses on empowering African youth with software coding skills through hands-on and playful learning.

It is hosted by SAP Africa and is modelled on a similar programme run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In its initial year, more than 89 000 youth were trained across the continent, more than four times the initial goal of reaching 20 000 youth across 17 countries.

The youth were then introduced to software coding over a 10-day period.

Cape Town Science Centre director Julie Cleverdon said the ambitious aim for Africa Code Week 2016 is to reach at least 150 000 youth in 30 African countries.

“Africa has the youngest population and the fastest growing population in the world. About 10 million African youth arrive each year on the labour market.

“Coding is a new language and every child deserves to be fluent, “ said Cleverdon.

SAP skills for Africa is a skills development and job creation initiative aimed at developing ICT skills in Africa as part of the company’s global commitment to promoting education and entrepreneurship.

With growth and the scarcity of these skills on the continent top of mind, the programme is a first of its kind in the industry in Africa. It offers selected students the opportunity to develop world-class IT and business skills.

SAP regional manager Pieter Bouwer said this was an exciting opportunity because the world was becoming digital.

“This is an opportunity to develop world class IT that translates into internships with customers and partners on successful completion of the training, effectively giving them an opportunity to play a role in contributing towards Africa’s future economic growth and infrastructure development. “