Who are the new game-changers at EDACY?
Tags: Technology, Innovation, Education, Africa, Talent

EDACY is re-imagining dual-education model (successful model used in Germany and Switzerland with apprenticeship in a company and theory in classroom) to create a scalable alternative to college for tech and engineering skills training in Africa, and help companies recruit engineering talents in quality and quantity as needed.

Unlike traditional college, EDACY fast-tracks specific job-skills in 9-months by pairing high-quality educational resources online (MOOCs from our partner — Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and locally tech universities) with full-time immersion in enterprise. Better than college, students are paid during training, placed in jobs after completion of program and receive accredited certification. EDACY removes the pain of scouting, hiring, training and retaining technical talents for fast growing companies in Africa.

There is a simple web application for students to register online and take the MOOCs; and a learning management application that enables companies to manage and follow students progress with defined learning objectives.

The current cohort in Software Leadership, launched in Senegal, 720 students applied, and 312 actively learned online. Multiple online exercises enabled initial evaluation and screening, followed by a mock and proctored exam organized on the campus with our local university partner — the Advanced School of Engineering, Senegal. 35 Students were selected for a 3-day bootcamp where only 20 students were selected for the enterprise immersion. The 2nd of May the talents will start their enterprise-immersion at our partner enterprises in Senegal. Here some insights in the talents that successfully followed EDACY Fast Track.

“We need to change our mind and that’s what EDACY really brought to us”

Arielle Nobime is among the two woman in the selected talent pool. She shared her EDACY journey with us. Read her testimony here.

“It’s here where I will fulfil my dreams”

Mama Amar, one of the selected talents, shared his experiences with us. You can read his testimony here.

Some infographics about our final selection of talents (20)

Interestingly, 5% of talents (1 student) with no STEM background, made it this far in the program.

Extra fact, the last 3 weeks (April 2017) the talents were into acceleration, 76 hours of learning as a last screening step prior to immersion. 70% of the time was focussed on technical abilities by daily assignments and coding projects. 30% was dedicated to interpersonal skills. On average, there is an increase of 35% for grades before acceleration, compared to grades after the 3 weeks of acceleration. Would you like to immerse talents at your enterprise the next cohort? Find out how to become a partner and watch here why others joined us.

Next Steps

Enterprises are currently choosing their talents and assigning them to company projects. Once this step is completed in the next couple of weeks, talents will enter into 6-months full time immersion training, on dedicated company projects while following Makersday classes once a week at ESP. Immersion learning will set the first dual education pilot of its kind in Francophone Africa, in the field of software leadership.

will set the first dual education pilot of its kind in Francophone Africa, in the field of software leadership. During the immersion phase talents will have Saturday Meet-ups (MakersDay) where they along with mentors will develop in technical and life skills. Including 7 ESP professors from the computer science department are allocated to be academic mentors and MakersDay Hard Skills instructors during immersion.

(MakersDay) where they along with mentors will develop in technical and life skills. Including 7 ESP professors from the computer science department are allocated to be academic mentors and MakersDay Hard Skills instructors during immersion. 20 International mentors (representing 14 different countries) are paired with each student for one-on-one soft skills online mentoring during immersion.

PS: Watch here how we are solving graduate unemployment and skill-gap in Africa

OUR MISSION — OUR VISION

We equip young people with life-changing skills that help them thrive. We believe that we exist to create a permanent change in the way young people learn and acquire skills, so to prepare them for the real-world challenges of a modern society.We want to bring EDACY to the world, where our graduates are true game-changers — transforming their own lives and impacting millions of people. www.edacy.com