SAP Africa announced the launch of the inaugural Africa Code Week (ACW) with the go-live scheduled for October 2015. The initiative will see an estimated 20 000 children across the continent, ranging in age from 8 to 24 years, participating in software coding workshops across 11 African countries: South Africa, Angola, Cameroon, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo and Tunisia.
The ACW has been developed in partnership with Simplon.co, the Cape Town Science Centre and the Galway Education Centre, with the purpose of empowering youth, teachers and parents with the language of software programming using a freely available ‘Scratch’ 1 system to help bridge the digital skills gap across many areas in Africa.
According to the World Economic Forum, Africa has the largest youth demographic across the globe. Over the next 25 years, it is estimated that the continent’s working-age population will double to one billion, exceeding that of China and India.
Compounding the potential problem in relation to this boom in working-age youth is the lack of education – specifically technology training. It is estimated that throughout Africa, less than 1% of children leave school with basic coding skills, yet government, the private sector and non-profit companies are unable to fill positions with employees holding this very skill set.
Through a decade-long relationship with FIRST Lego League, SAP has identified that gamification provides the optimal environment for children to rapidly absorb technology skills. Africa Code Week is an extension of this thinking; children learn best when they are having fun – and the pedagogic approach to ACW provides that platform.
SAP is inviting other companies to join them in this effort to train African youth by becoming partners for Africa Code Week 2015. For further partnership opportunities contact claire.gillissen-duval@sap.com or sunil.geness@sap.com
