Google is scaling up its digital skills training programmes to accommodate a million Africans in the next year, aiming to deal with high unemployment numbers on the continent.
In realizing this commitment, Google is supporting its partner Livity Africa to run two training programs: ‘Digify Bytes’ to give digital skills to young people looking to develop a digital career; and ‘Digify Pro’, a 3-month immersion program for digital specialists.
These programs have already launched in Nigeria, Kenya & South Africa, and will be scaled to reach more people in the next 12 months. A group of 65 volunteer Googlers from around the world are helping the Livity team with content development, ‘training the trainers’ and, in some cases, delivering the training sessions.
“The Digify programmes (which are all free) will provide tools and knowledge on subjects including building an online presence‚ creating content‚ understanding web design and user experience‚ social media and app development”‚ said the company in a statement.
Additionally, the announcement saw the launch of digifyafrica.com – an online-learning portal that will house a range of digital skills courses, available to anyone in Africa – free. The courses are designed to be as “light” as possible so they don’t eat up valuable data. There are nine training courses already available and Google aims to have 50 available by July.
