It’s the month of October and you can feel it in the air, the coding bug, from Algeria to Zimbabwe the atmosphere is hitting up, the days are crammed full with activities, it is the Africa Code Week.
This is the scenario you’ll find across Africa around October. It kicks off on the 5th of October, World Teachers Day and spans throughout October. In between the weeks of October, Teachers across Africa pick a week or two convenient for their curriculum to hold the Africa Code Week. Here’s all you need to know about the Largest coding event in Africa.
What is Africa Code Week?
Africa Code Week is an initiative by SAP founded in 2015. SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, helping companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best. With the participation of UNESCO and Youth Mobile since 2016. These key partners have expanded this initiative to young people in Africa by introducing them to computer programming and problem-solving.
UNESCO is helping to facilitate the training workshops of teachers for this initiative while keeping a sharp focus on increasing female participation and Government engagement.
How Does Africa Code Week Operate?
Africa Code
Africa Code Week believes teachers are the reference point of technology for young people and have been involving them through collaborative efforts with volunteers every year. Every year, SAP trains volunteers of targeted African countries who in turn train teachers through a Train-The-Trainee Model. The teachers are then equipped to train students. This model put the teachers at the center of digital innovations and place them as resources rather than hindrances of digital technology in the educational system.
What Has Been Achieved So Far?
Since the creation of Africa Code Week, in 2016, Africa Code Week has been steadily gaining momentum as a key partner in the tech revolution spanning across the continent. In 2015, Africa Code Week reached 88,000 youths at 3000 coding events across the continent, this was over 400% more than the initial target.
Now in its 5th year, it has reached 2.3 million young people with over 6000+ coding workshops in 38 countries in Africa, partners and sponsors in both private and public sectors have since been increasing steadily.
What Role Do We Play in Africa Code Week
Standing in as a key player by hosting a coding workshop, Online Hub Educational Services in conjunction with Cape Town Science Centre with support from Google did run hands-on coding workshops tagged “One Student, One Skill” – #OneStudentOneSkill – for Teenagers during Africa Code Week 2017 in our community of practice Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.
The project in 2017 trained a total number of 1,509 learners (with 62.2% female students and 37.8% male students) at 7-held Live events throughout the week-long learning experience.
The project was able to introduce the learners to coding and programming using Google CS-First and Computer Science (CS) Unplugged and the grant received in 2017 made us more confident than ever before in our ability to realize our vision of #OneStudentOneSkill — that every student (especially girls) in every school community should have one basic skill in this evolving digital world.
A milestone in 2018, our excitement last year was not in the numbers we anticipated to train (500-Teachers in Ogun State) but in the extras and the obvious willingness of more teachers who all wanted to be a part of the Africa Code Week 2018 Train-the-Trainer Session. The enthusiasm of the trained Five Hundred and Thirteen (513) CS/STEM Educators who all in-turn introduced Programming (using Google CS-Frist, CS Unplugged, and Scratch) to Fifty (50) Students each – in October 2018 – was breath-taking for us; our vision of the #OneStudentOneSkill Initiative stays quite alive.
As a major highpoint, during the Train-the-Trainer Session held in 2018 for 513-Teachers in Ogun State had in attendance, Senior Officials of the Ogun State Teaching Service Commission (our partners at the State Government level) and most excitingly was the presence of the Chairman of the Commission – Chief Mrs. Olabosipo Ogunsan, alongside her entourage of Senior Officers of the Commission – on the opening activities of the TTT Session at the ICT Centre of Tai Solarin University of Education. This special appearance of the dignitaries spurred the interest of the Teachers more and they keyed into the vision of delivering the Digital and Coding Skills learned to Students in their various schools.
How you can be a part of Africa Code Week?
Attend a live workshop: There would be several workshops taking place at schools, universities, science labs and community centers. Online Hub Nigeria would hold several workshops in specific locations, if you’re in Ogun state, locate our closest workshop. You can also find workshops through the ACW map
Be an Instructor or a Volunteer: Without facilitators and front burners, young people who are passionate about spreading the tech bug, ACW would be a success. Learn how to deliver training with the online tools provided by SAP. Follow us on all platforms and watch out for our call for volunteers.
Be a Corporate Sponsor: By becoming a sponsor, your organization will help the entire stakeholders, as the bond for ACW initiatives, Corporate sponsors help run the back end of the event to ensure it runs smoothly. You can reach out to info@africacodeweek.org to request the ACW sponsorship package.
Africa Code Week is instilling digital literacy and coding skills in the young generation, working closely with private, public and non-profit partners to drive sustainable learning impact across Africa.
Online Hub Educational Services are set on being part of making this dream a reality by 2020, be on the lookout for our workshop schedule which will display the dates, location and time of our training workshops in October, 2019.
