ALX Learners Showcase Skills
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
A group of learners at ALX, an organization providing technology training for young Africans to accelerate their career trajectory, has showcased their tech projects developed at the ALX hub in Ghana.
The learners presented their projects, developed after weeks of training at the ALX hub, to guests of the Full Circle Africa Economic Forum Conference hosted in Ghana and Sand Tech CEO, Fred Swaniker.
The projects varied from a platform that takes entrepreneurs on a step-by-step journey on developing their business idea through to supporting existing businesses; to an app that connects plastic waste collectors to a ready market thereby increasing financial benefits for collector and buyers; and a health app that helps doctors connect to patients.
The learners were also engaged in a panel discussion focused on how ALX has rapidly transformed their lives.
Sand Tech CEO, Fred Swaniker, speaking after the presentations explained that ALX has a vision of creating software engineers who use their skills to solve societal challenges and as well understand business.
“We train them so they can think through strategy, understand soft skills, communicate, and work in projects,” he said.
He further opined that learners are also exposed to problems in society such as waste management, climate change, education, healthcare so by the time they start coding, it is with a purpose.
“So that is my context, and after they have done this for three months, they then go into learning the technology. So we wanted to give them a real why. And that’s kind of how the whole programme works,” Mr. Swaniker asserted.
The CEO of Sand under which ALX operates indicated that the learners after their training go on to the job market, become entrepreneurs or are employed by its technology company, Sand, to deliver projects for companies around the world.
He also pointed out that the tech learning hub has tailor made programmes for females to help shore up their participation in the technology industry.
The guests including captains of industries, business influencers and investors later held an interactive session where learners got to chat with them.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri