350 Youths Benefit From World Bank-assisted Scholarship Programme

The CyberSchool Africa through its Innovation Development and Effectiveness in Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS) Technology Skills Scholarship 2024, is set to empower over 350 Nigerian youths with digital skills and literacy.

The objective of the training is to enhance the capacity of the Nigerian skills development system to produce relevant skills for the formal and informal sectors. The programme which will offer internship and mentorship for beneficiaries is supported by the World Bank, Gallery Of Codes and implemented by the Ministry of Education.

At the orientation and inaugural ceremony in Abuja, founder of Gallery of Codes, Mr Oscar Anietie Ekponimo said the idea  is to plug the unemployment gap and make the people participate more in the digital economy. “The CyberSchool training programme is designed to align with the IDEAS objective and serves as a catalyst for innovation and job readiness through the acquisition of skills in emerging technologies.”

According to him, “Over 350 trainees have been onboarded for the programme to be trained on User-Interface designs, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Cloud Engineering and Software Engineering and multifarious digital skills. This is the first cohort which will take between 3-6 months in these different courses and beneficiaries will be certified both by us and also by international certification bodies.”

While urging young people to tap into digital skills to create solutions that will affect society positively, Ekponimo emphasised that in the rapidly evolving job market, possessing strong digital skills has become more than just an advantage. “As industries embrace digital transformation and technology continues to reshape the way we work, individuals who are proficient in digital tools and technologies stand out as highly desirable candidates for employment.

“In a digital-first world, enhancing job readiness through digital skills is not just advantageous—it‘s essential for staying competitive in the job market and future-proofing your career. I encourage you to take advantage of this unique opportunity for growth and upgrade you skills deposit to improve your earning capacity,” he added.

The national coordinator, National Talent Export Programme of the Ministry of Trade and Investment, Dr Femi Adeloye, while delivering his speech said the CyberSchool Africa programme is very important, and that Nigeria can only compete with other countries of the world when it has highly skilled and competent people.

“There are countries like India, Philippines, Bangladesh that are making a whole lot of money comparable to what we use for our budget, and they are getting it from talent export and outsourcing. So if we want to be able to capture these markets they already have, we must have highly competent people. I am excited about this programme, I want to thank the organisers, World Bank and Gallery of Codes for organising it.”

Also, CyberSchool Africa (Gallery of Codes) lead technical project manager, Onisudumeya Hamilton said the IDEAS Project is geared towards ensuring that there is a fundamental level of capacity development in Nigeria.

“The World Bank is gearing towards ensuring that by 2025-2030 Nigeria has a technical capacity that can be exported and also drive the human capacity development sector. In improving the local content you have to train, if you don’t have the human capacity, you cannot improve the local content. So, the World Bank decided to assist Nigeria to see to the actualization of that goal. Through this programme, we are supporting the federal government to facilitate the goal for concomitant actualisation.”

He said, “After the first and second cohort, there will be a series of technical internships, laboratory sessions, mentorship programmes, and immersive projects which they will be working on, and at the end of the day, they will be plugged into jobs.”

On his part, CyberSchool Africa cloud engineer, mentor and tutor, Musa Dabra said the training programme will be intensive and hands-on where beneficiaries will have active participation.