Google And Udacity To Offer Scholarships In Africa

In 2017 over 73 million people in Africa accessed the internet for the first time. This trend will continue growing forward and in a bid to prepare the continent for this boom, Google is partnering with Udacity and Andele to help provide the digital skills that will be necessary to ensure Africans can experience the internet tailor-made to meet their needs.

Google’s statement on the scholarship program:

there are now about 435 million people on the continent using the Web to engage, connect and access information online. That’s a good thing! But with this growth comes an increased need to scale efforts to make the Web more relevant and useful to African users. This will require more skilled hands working with individuals and local businesses to develop content and platforms that will support Africa’s digital growth.

The scholarship program will equip 15 000 Africans with skills in web development and Android development. The program is open to both aspiring and professional developers in Africa. The minimum age for entrants is 18 years. During the application, applicants will also choose between two programs: Web development or Android Development. Here is how the scholarships are going to be distributed:

• 15,000 2-month ‘single course’ scholarships
• 500 6-month nanodegree scholarships

The training will be conducted online via Udacity’s training website. Andela’s Learning Community will provide support to students but only to students in Nigeria and Kenya.

Of the 15 000 scholarships 10 000 will be given to beginners with little to no programming experience and they will learn android beginner courses along with a basic introduction to HTML and CSS.

The remaining 5 000 applicants need to have over a year’s experience in professional developer roles. Their scholarships will include Android fundamentals for intermediate and be building offline web applications respectively. All the courses will be taught in English.

The top 500 at the end of the challenge will earn a full Nanodegre Scholarship to one of four Nanodegree programs in Android Development or Web Development.

This program is in line with Sundar Pichai’s (Google CEO) pledge to provide digital skills to 10 million Africans and provide mobile developer training to 100 000 Africans. Applications for Google Africa Scholarship Program close on the 24^th of April.

Is Zim eligible?

At the time of writing, unfortunately, no. Google’s blog post on the scholarships program states that scholarships are being given in Africa so one would assume we are a part of Africa. During the sign-up Zimbabwe is nowhere to be found on the list of countries. There is no reason disclosed as to why. With 24 April fast approaching I don’t think Google will add Zimbabwe to the list of countries but hopefully their next initiatives will be more inclusive.