The American based tech giant, Google is supporting Africa 118 and Youth Advocacy Foundation Uganda-YAFU to conduct digital skills training. This will cut across Africa through the Digital Skills for Africa Initiative programme.
This programme was launched on 12th April 2016 as Google’s commitment to skill African youths with free skills to contribute towards Africa’s Digital economy.
YAFU, a leading youth-centred development agency is partnering with Kyambogo University to equip the students and staff with digital skills. Through a training scheduled to take place on Thursday 3rd-4th October 2019, from 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM at CTF 106 Kyambogo University.
YAFU believes that this training which will be fully facilitated by facilitators from Google will not only help the Kyambogo community in their academics but also in their entire lives.
The training is composed of a number of training sessions and it is projected to enable African youths to be able to utilise the abundant internet opportunities.
YAFU thinks that if young people have the right skills, they build businesses, create jobs, and boost economic growth.
This can really create a visible positive impact on the African Digital Economy.
“We hope to equip over 10 million young Africans (18-35 years) with Digital skills and tools to help them build an online presence, create content, understand the web design and user experience, social media, and app development.” YAFU Executive Director, Akampa Rugaba told this website.
“We hope other Universities will also come on board to tap into these free training and learning. Meanwhile, in the end, participants do not just get free certificates but also knowledge which is applicable across their entire lives.” He added.
As a result of the increased number of internet users, the training is recommended for both students and non-students. In addition, especially the entrepreneurs as well as job seekers.
The packages included can help you to build the individual’s online presence, products, and services. Also marketing websites, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and many more.
Speaking to this website, Hasahya Brian, one of the digital skills training beneficiaries and a BIS yr-3 student at Kyambogo said;
It was during my internship when I saw a friend doing the course, so I picked an interest.
I did the course both at home and also at the ministry of ICT, where I was doing my internship from.
The training helped me to basically learn how to do search engine optimisation. I didn’t even know that I can create websites for local businesses using the tools provided by Google.
After I tried creating a website for my own dream business brightitsolutions. I, therefore, got some online clients as a result.
I faced the challenges of internet connection during the training. However, I would also switch devices sometimes on android and on the PC. But that didn’t hinder me from accomplishing the task.
I recommend Google’s digital skills content. It is so simple to understand ranging from the short videos, the objectives, the notes, etc. You gain a lot by doing these courses moreover for free. Everyone should embrace them to be it students or not.
YAFU aims to enable more Ugandans to harness the opportunities within the digital world to build a stronger economy. This is through creating or getting the necessary skills for better jobs. Therefore, it calls upon everyone not to miss this opportunity and also welcomes those who wish to be the programme’s coordinator in other Universities.
Thank you for choosing me among the many to give an opinion about Google digital skills. Im humbled