New coding initiative to boost graduate employability

African universities are set to become the ‘primary drivers’ of the Coding for Employment Program (CEP), which aims to prepare the continent’s youth for jobs of the future by empowering them to take the lead in the digital revolution.

“The role of the CEP initiative cannot be overemphasised; it is a ‘motivator’ for innovation and invention,” said Nigerian information and communications technology (ICT) expert Odinakachi Nwafor, who is programme assistant at Pradigm Initiative, a social enterprise that connects underserved youth with ICT opportunities.

Nwafor told University World News African universities are the primary drivers for the CEP initiative. “In fighting university graduate unemployment in Africa, the CEP is a strategic tool. It provides decent self-employment for graduate unemployed youth,” said Nwafor.

Problem-solving skills

He said as a direct result of the CEP initiative African universities would produce graduates with high problem-solving and innovative skills. “African universities should include the CEP in their curriculum as part of entrepreneurship skill development studies,” Nwafor said.

Echoing these sentiments, Ghada Khalifa, director of Microsoft Philanthropies for the Middle East and Africa, said CEP has the potential to help keep African universities relevant to the 21st century, so that graduates seeking employment in the fourth industrial revolution are on a par with similar institutions around the world.

The CEP initiative, managed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in cooperation with the Rockefeller Foundation, Microsoft and Facebook, was announced at the Africa Innovation Summit 2018 held under the theme “Addressing Africa's Challenges” in Kigali, Rwanda, from 6-8 June, according to the AfDB website.

Coding is at the centre of the African Development Bank’s Jobs for Youth in Africa initiative, which aims to equip 50 million youth with employable skills and create 25 million jobs by 2025 in agriculture, ICT and other key industries across Africa.

New career opportunities

Khalifa acknowledged that the world is changing in the digital age and that the fourth industrial revolution is going to bring new career opportunities – in fact, many students today will end up working in jobs that don’t exist yet. “The demand for digitisation across all sectors has never been greater,” Khalifa said.

According to AfDB’s 10-year strategy for jobs for youth in Africa, the mobile sector is to create over four million direct and indirect jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. There is also growth in technology start-ups in Sub-Saharan Africa, with funding increasing almost 10 times between 2012 and 2014.

The online outsourcing industry is expected to employ at least 30 million registered workers by 2020. African countries are just starting to enter this market as both providers and clients, with room for expansion. The e-commerce industry also provides potential employment opportunities.

“However, more than 70% of Africans still lack access to internet and digital infrastructures, not to mention the digital literacy skills required to participate in this new digital world. Even in traditional university settings, these skills have not yet become a solid part of the curriculum,” Khalifa said.

“Often, unemployment arises due to a skills gap between first-time job-seekers and employers – even when job-seekers have attended university,” added Khalifa.

“ICT is estimated to represent only 1% to 3% of university enrolments in Africa, fewer than 200,000 students and far below expected needs,” according to the AfDB strategy for jobs for youth in Africa.

“The CEP initiative has been designed to help prepare African youth for the jobs of the future and assist them in securing meaningful employment opportunities – helping curb youth unemployment and drive economic growth,” Khalifa said.

It is envisaged that the CEP will create over 9 million jobs and reach 32 million youth and women across Africa by promoting skills development around problem-solving, computational thinking and advanced programming in order to facilitate the integration of young graduates into the ICT job market. The current countries of the programme are Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Senegal.

“Universities in many African countries are experiencing a surge in enrolment,” according to Chawki Chahed from AfDB in an interview with University World News. “That is the reason why the African education system will gain from providing opportunities to absorb the entry of millions of African young people into the national and global workforce,” Chahed said.

“Finding productive jobs for young people is critical to the continent’s future and universities are key to that,” Chahed said.

Boosting universities’ capabilities

“African universities will play a leading role in the CEP implementation and success,” Chahed said. “They [universities] are our most valuable partners since they will not only be hosting the 130 ICT centres of excellence but also providing the staff and delivering the trainings. The CEP will leverage and enhance the capacity at university level but African universities will become the engine to promote a culture of innovation,” Chahed said.

Chahed said the CEP will provide appropriate facilities and infrastructure (ICT centres of excellence) within selected universities. Not only are they to house the training programmes but their staff, educators, teachers and experts will benefit from the IT industry curricula and enhance their expertise in the ICT sector, Chahed said.

“As ICT has integrated core educational subjects like agriculture, health, environment, the university curricula in Africa can take the chance the CEP offers to evolve to provide an inescapable education skill and training for jobs in today’s and the future’s workforce.”

Youth are Africa’s greatest asset, but this asset remains untapped due to high unemployment. Africa’s youth population is rapidly growing and is expected to double to over 830 million by 2050, according to Khalifa.

“But the potential benefits of this population are unrealised as two-thirds of non-student youth are unemployed, discouraged or only vulnerably employed,” Khalifa said.

As a result, Nwafor said the CEP should not be limited to university graduates. “There are many great and innovative minds who do not have the opportunity to obtain a university education,” Nwafor said.