- It features instructors from across sectors.
- In its second year, PLP plans to roll out in Southern and Western Africa.
Kenya is the first beneficiary of the Power Learn Project which aims at providing the youth with affordable accessible and quality tech training.
The Pan African impact organisation has chosen 1,000 learners in the country to join its first cohort of the targeted one million developers for Africa.
The programme targets to train scholars across the continent, starting with Kenya, where Power Learn Project is headquartered, before moving to Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi in the next six months.
In its second year, PLP plans to roll out in Southern and Western Africa.
"The program is designed to empower the youth with tech employability skills," PLP chief growth and operations manager, Mumbi Ndungu, said.
The cohort was selected after a rigorous vetting and panel selection process preceded by a recent countrywide rollout, she explained.
Power Learn’s One million developers for Africa programme is a comprehensive approach to supporting youths by providing them with accessible world-class tech education to grow their tech skills and set them apart.
This allows them to become more adaptable and ready for changes in the future.
Technology, which the Kenyan government has been keen on advancing, provides learners with easy to access information, accelerated learning, and fun opportunities to practice what they learn.
It enables learners to explore new technologies and deepen their understanding of difficult concepts, particularly in tech, where Kenya has grown to become a regional tech hub.
According to Ndungu, the Covid-19 pandemic catalyzed an already-accelerating rate of digital transformation, where the old ways of doing things changed irreversibly.
"The demand for digital skills was likewise impacted, as companies shifted from physical headquarters to embracing a digital HQ mentality. While this trend had been gaining momentum for decades across all industries, today’s acceleration is unprecedented," Ndungu notes.
Digital adoption and the respective digital skills needed to embrace the transformation are critical to landing more secure, in-demand tech careers.
The learners will have access to a wide network of mentors, learn from expert Power Learn Project instructors across the sector, receive unique access to support from teaching assistants, and get opportunities ranging from internships and proof of work opportunities.
Apart from ICT, the learners have an opportunity to develop solutions for the transport sector, and health among others.
Power Learn project has invested in resources that will be able to support the developers to acquire soft skills gradually over the next five years. The training will be a series of self-paced online classes.
A student is required to spend at least three hours a day or 15 hours a week in their online class on the PLP learning platform.
There will also be sessions on soft skills such as entrepreneurship, proposal writing, and networking.