As the world faces the transformative economic, social and environmental challenges of Globalization 4.0, it has never been more important to invest in people. Valuing human capital not only serves to equip individuals with the knowledge and skills to respond to systematic shifts, it also empowers them to take part in creating a more, equal and sustainable world.
Education is and will remain critical for promoting inclusive economic growth and providing a future of opportunity for all. It is in line with this, that Coven Works’ has partnered with The Deutsche Gesekkschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to successfully train 100 youths from underserved communities in Nigeria on Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Coven Works’, the leading Data Science and Artificial Intelligence education organization in Nigeria, schooled and mentored these 100 participants for a period of twelve weeks and secured placements for each trainee in a three months internship, where they will work in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence related job functions.
While speaking at the Project Demonstration day of the Beneficiaries, Coven Works’ Country Director, Mr. Dunsin Fatuase said that “Coven Works through Coven Labs will continue to focus on upskilling youths in underserved communities , by providing cutting edge knowledge in data science and Artificial Intelligence for Africans, and other working professionals to the point where we can say that Africa has a refined workforce fully ready for the future of work.” He expressed his joy as 100 of these beneficiaries could boost lives, projects and technical confidence to better the African market with their new skillset.
According to The World Economic Forum (WEF) report on “The Future of Work” supports this notion as it posits that more jobs will be dependent on skills in technology and those who can acquire these relevant technological skills will have job security and inevitably be empowered to achieve more.
The GIZ and its Nigerian German Centre (NGC) have from inception been on the path of supporting as many Nigerians to realize their role in the countries social economic system and it has through this collaboration with Coven Works aided the youth population from some of Nigeria’s underserved communities to acquire skills that would make them relevant in future of work.
The impact of these skills being acquired have been heralded by some of the direct beneficiaries of the training program who have stated that: “The vocational training in Data Science from the GIZ and NGC came at a time that I needed it the most. I did not believe that I could learn it in 6 weeks but the delivery by the Coven Works facilitators made all the difference for me.” – Adedoyin Lukmon.
In the same vein, Augustine Adugbe stated that ” The guidance and mentoring during the last 6 weeks was my motivation and I would like to say a big thank you to the GIZ and Coven Works for not only teaching me how to code and generate insightful visualizations but also, helping me make the quantum leap into working in this field. I almost can’t believe I am starting my internship in a few days”.
The results of the 100 participants in the training programme and their feedback has not only cemented the goals and mandate of the GIZ but it has also encouraged continuous up-skilling of more Nigerians in technology related fields such as Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.
While taking an address from the Team Lead, Programme Migration for Development GIZ Nigeria, Mrs. Sandra Alonge admonished the participants by stating that their growth and success through the program would serve as a pilot to the GIZ future projects, the quality of their result would determine the future of such programs.
Mrs. Alonge said “Seeing the results these set of 100 beneficiaries have gotten, we can say that they have done well in being a good encourager to make this project continually supported by the German cooperation”.
The training of the 100 youths, and the mandatory job placements of all participants is one step further in Coven Works mission to ensure that Nigerians are better educated to fill the skills gap and ultimately positively impact the African economic market to technological skills education and training .
GIZ-NIGERIA GIZ’s activities in Nigeria are commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Federal Foreign Office (AA). Other partners include the European Union in the fields of peace and security and energy and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in the field of agricultural value chains. The activities focus on the following: Economic Development and Employment, Environment & Climate Change, Rural Development, Security, Reconstruction and Peace, Governance and Democracy. GIZ has worked in Nigeria since 1974 with a maintained country office in the capital city Abuja since 2004.
