The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in partnership with Coursera calls for application from interested Nigerians to apply for the Cohort 3 of Coursera courses, in line with the Agency’s drive to implement the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to create one million digital jobs in the Information Technology sector.
Recall that on October 19, 2022, NITDA and Coursera announced their agreement to assist address high rates of youth unemployment, which were 19.6% in 2021. The goal of the partnership is for both parties to train 8,000 Nigerian students annually in cohorts of 4000 students each, for a total of 24,000 students in three years.
NITDA’s Head of Corporate Affairs & External Relations, Mrs Hadiza Umar, stated in a statement on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, that Coursera gives the organization’s chosen students access to top-notch educational resources from prestigious colleges and business titans like Yale, Meta, Google, and IBM. Coursera will assist the Nigerian government in fostering talent in information technology and enhancing the technical proficiency of the nation’s young. This cooperation marks Coursera’s first with a Nigerian government.
Through a partnership with Coursera, Nigerian students will have access to the Professional Certificates portfolio, which is intended to equip them with the knowledge and abilities needed to pass professional certification exams and begin working in a particular field—like IT support, for example—in less than three months.
The 32 Professional Certificates offered by Coursera are specifically created to make it easier for students to enter fields with high rates of growth, such as software development (IBM), social media marketing (Meta), and data analytics (Google). With the expectation that 3 million digital jobs will be generated in the next four years, these roles are expected to boost a growing portion of the Nigerian labour market.
Traction: A total of 8000 Learners have graduated from Cohort 1 (4000) and Cohort 2 (4000) in the first year of the partnership. Beneficiaries range from students, Government workers, entrepreneurs and academics. In the 2 Cohorts, there were 43,745 enrollments 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 3 domains Computer science (31.83%), Business (35.73%) and Data Science (32.44%). The feedback from learners with an average rating of 4.8/5.0 signifies Nigerian’s enthusiasm for digital up-skilling on the Coursera Platform. Additionally, a recent study by Business Insider Africa has found that Sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s highest year-on-year average growth rate for people enrolling for professional courses, with Nigeria ranking third globally.
The Cohort 3 skills will focus on the 3 million Tech talent (3MTT) initiative of the Federal Ministry of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy as listed below;
• Software Development
• UI/UX Design
• Data Analysis & Visualisations
• Quality Assurance
• Product Management
• Data Science
• Animation
• AI / Machine Learning
• Cyber Security
• Game Development
• Cloud Computing
• Dev Ops
Interested Nigerians are invited to apply through the link below.
Application Link: https://links.nitda.gov.ng/coursera2401
Application start date: Wednesday, 24 January 2024
Programme Start Date: 10th February 2024
About NITDA
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) was created in April 2001 to implement the Nigerian Information Technology Policy and coordinate general IT development in the country. NITDA develops, regulates and advises on Information technology in Nigeria through regulatory standards, guidelines and policies.
Additionally, NITDA is the clearing house for all IT projects and infrastructural development in the country. It is the primary Agency for e-government implementation, Internet governance and general IT development in Nigeria.
About Coursera
Coursera was launched in 2012 by two Stanford Computer Science professors, Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, with a mission to provide universal access to world-class learning. It is now one of the largest online learning platforms in the world, with 107 million registered learners as of June 30, 2022. Coursera partners with over 275 leading university and industry partners to offer a broad catalogue of content and credentials, including courses, Specializations, Professional Certificates, Guided Projects, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Institutions around the world use Coursera to upskill and reskill their employees, citizens, and students in fields such as data science, technology, and business.
