The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in partnership with Coursera calls for applications from interested Nigerians to apply for the Cohort 3 of Coursera courses.
A statement by the Head, Corporate Affairs & External Relations of NITDA, Mrs. Hadiza Umar, said the training is in line with the Agency’s drive to implement President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to create one million digital jobs in the Information Technology sector
Recall that NITDA and Coursera on October 19, 2022, launched a partnership to help combat high rates of youth unemployment, which stood at 19.6 percent in 2021, with both parties intending to train 8000 Nigerian learners annually in a cohort of 4000 learners each for the total of 24,000 in 3 years.
According to Mrs. Umar, “Coursera provides NITDA’s selected learners with access to world-class educational content from top universities and industry leaders – including Yale, Meta, Google, and IBM. Coursera will support the Nigerian government in improving the technical capabilities of the country’s youths and developing Information Technology talent. The collaboration is Coursera’s first government partnership in Nigeria.
“Partnering with Coursera will give Nigerian learners access to Coursera’s Professional Certificates portfolio, which are designed to empower learners to gain the skills necessary to pass an industry certification exam or launch a career in a specific field, such as IT support within three months.
“Coursera’s 32 Professional Certificates are explicitly designed to facilitate entry into high-growth careers, including Data Analytics (Google), Social Media Marketing (Meta), and Software Developer (IBM). These roles are due to enhance an increasing share of the Nigerian labour market, which expects 3 million digital jobs to be created in the next four years.”
Traction: A total of 8000 Learners have been graduated from Cohort 1 (4000) and Cohort 2 (4000) in the first year of the partnership. Beneficiaries range from students, Government workers, entrepreneurs and academics. In the 2 Cohorts, there were 43,745 enrollments in different courses with learners completing 16,374 courses which indicates that each learner enrolled an average of five courses. The distribution of skills developed based on 3 domains are Computer science (31.83%), Business (35.73%) and Data Science (32.44%). The feedback from learners with an average rating of 4.8/5.0 signifies Nigerians enthusiasm in digital up-skilling on the Coursera Platform. Additionally, a recent study by the Business Insider Africa has found that Sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s highest year-on-year average growth rate for people enrolling for professional courses, with Nigeria ranking third globally.
The Cohort 3 skills will focus on the 3 million Tech talent (3MTT) initiative of the Federal Ministry of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy as listed below:
- Software Development
- UI/UX Design
- Data Analysis & Visualisations
- Quality Assurance
- Product Management
- Data Science
- Animation
- AI / Machine Learning
- Cyber Security
- Game Development
- Cloud Computing
- Dev Ops
Interested Nigerians are invited to apply through the link below.
Application Link: https://links.nitda.gov.ng/coursera2401
Applications start date: Wednesday, 24 January 2024
Programme Start Date: 10th February 2024
About NITDA
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) was created in April 2001 to implement the Nigerian Information Technology Policy and co-ordinate general IT development in the country. NITDA develops, regulates, and advises on Information technology in Nigeria through regulatory standards, guidelines, and policies.
Additionally, NITDA is the clearing house for all IT projects and infrastructural development in the country. It is the primary Agency for e-government implementation, Internet governance, and general IT development in Nigeria.
About Coursera
Coursera was launched in 2012 by two Stanford Computer Science professors, Andrew Ng, and Daphne Koller, with a mission to provide universal access to world-class learning. It is now one of the largest online learning platforms in the world, with 107 million registered learners as of June 30, 2022. Coursera partners with over 275 leading university and industry partners to offer a broad catalog of content and credentials, including courses, Specializations, Professional Certificates, Guided Projects, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Institutions around the world use Coursera to upskill and reskill their employees, citizens, and students in fields such as data science, technology, and business.
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