The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in partnership with Coursera has opened applications for Cohort 3 of Coursera courses.
The Head, of Corporate Affairs and External Relations of NITDA, Mrs Hadiza Umar, disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja. Umar said the training is in line with the agency’s drive to implement President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to create one million digital jobs in the Information Technology sector.
She recalled that NITDA and Coursera on Oct. 19, 2022, launched a partnership to help combat high rates of youth unemployment, which stood at 19.6% in 2021.
She also said that the duo at the time, intended to train 8,000 Nigerian learners annually in a cohort of 4,000 learners each for a total of 24,000 in three years.
How the partnership works
Explaining the partnership arrangement between NITDA and Coursera for the training program, Umar said:
- “Coursera provides NITDA’s selected learners with access to world-class educational content from top universities and industry leaders, including Yale, Meta, Google, and IBM.
- “Coursera will support the Nigerian government in improving the technical capabilities of the country’s youths and develop IT talent.”
According to her, partnering with Coursera will give Nigerian learners access to Coursera’s Professional Certificates portfolio.
She added that the certificate portfolio was designed to empower learners to gain the skills necessary to pass an industry certification examination or launch a career in a specific field, such as IT support within three months.
- “Coursera’s 32 Professional Certificates are explicitly designed to facilitate entry into high-growth careers, including Data Analytics (Google), Social Media Marketing (Meta) and Software Developer (IBM).
- “These roles are due to enhance an increasing share of the Nigerian labour market, which expects three million digital jobs to be created in the next four years,” Umar stated.
Aligning with 3MTT
She said that the Cohort 3 skills would focus on the 3 Million Tech Talent (3MTT) initiative of the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy.
Some of the courses participants were expected to undertake included Software Development, UI/UX Design, Data Analysis and visualizations, Quality Assurance, Product Management, Data Science, Animation, AI/Machine Learning, Cyber Security and Cloud Computing.
Umar said that beneficiaries of the first and second Cohorts ranged from students, government workers, entrepreneurs, and academics.
- “In the two Cohorts, there were 43,745 enrolments in different courses with learners completing 16,374 courses which indicates that each learner enrolled an average of five courses. The distribution of skills developed based on three domains are Computer Science 31.83 per cent, Business 35.73%, and Data Science 32.44%.
- “The feedback from learners with an average rating of 4.8/5.0 signifies Nigerians’ enthusiasm in digital up-skilling on the Coursera Platform,” she said.
Nigerians interested in applying for IT training can apply here. The applications open from January 24, 2024, and the program is expected to commence on February 10, 2024.
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