As Africans continue to play catch up with the rapidly changing nature of technology, Learntor, a digital capacity building learning centre in Lagos, is bridging the technology skills gap by leveraging agile in providing access to over 230 million jobs that are available globally in the digital industry.
Agile relates to a method of project management, used especially for software development that is characterised by the division of tasks into short phases of work and frequent reassessment and adaptation of plans. The agile method replaces high-level design with a frequent redesign and is currently embedded with 46 frameworks.
Mercy George-Igbafe, Founder of Learntor, said the lack of needed skills is denying Nigerians, especially the youth, access to jobs that can be performed remotely in the digital industry. She stated that this is not in the best interest of the continent with over 1.3 billion people who are mostly youth.
“As part of the efforts to help bridge the digital skill gap, and with support from a number of organisations, we are holding the Women in Agile (WIA), Africa conference. The three-day virtual event is tagged; ‘Uniting and transforming Africa across Agile’. It is free for participants but registration is compulsory,” said George-Igbafe at a press conference to announce the date for the WIA Africa Conference in Lagos.
According to her, the conference aims to create awareness, explore innovative opportunities for Africans by advancing agile values and principles, and creating a safe space for networking, developing new skills, sharing ideas and flourishing together.
Igbafe stated that speakers from across the continent would deliver papers for the WIA Africa Conference scheduled to hold between January 27 and 29 and that the conference would be delivered in three different languages that is English, French and Portuguese.
Wale Bakare, President, Junior Chambers International (JCI), said collaborating with Learntor on the WIA, Africa conference would help expose more youth to the latest trends in the digital world.
According to him, JCI will provide advocacy among its members leveraging on a recently launched campaign called ‘SkillUp’ in collaboration with Learntor in tackling the challenges of employability among young Nigerians. “The goal is to make sure our people are job-ready,” he stated.
Bisi Alimi, one of the Learntor resource persons, said anybody can adapt to agile hence the conference seeks to bridge the digital skills gap in Africa. According to her, lots of Africans are not digitally savvy because many still hold the opinion that they require a science background.
She posits that Africans must be responsive to changes in adapting the agile frameworks and that the conference will expose participants to the various opportunities available in the tech space for Nigerians.
