The 2017 edition of Africa Code Week (ACW) arrived in Ghana this week with a series of Train-The-Trainer (TTT) workshops that took place.
Jointly organised by SAP, Dreamoval and the Ghana Education Service in Accra and Kumasi, these workshops are equipping local parents, teachers and educators with the coding skills and teaching materials they need to train children and youth in their immediate communities.
Africa Code Week was started in 2015 by SAP Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) EMEA together with public and private sector partners, with a long-term goal of empowering more than 200 000 teachers and positively impact the lives of 5 million children and youth within the next 10 years.
With over half a million young Africans introduced to coding across 30 countries so far, Africa Code Week key partners (SAP, UNESCO YouthMobile, the Cape Town Science Centre and the Galway Education Centre) have set new ambitious goals for 2017: impact the lives of 500 000 youth across 35 African countries over the course of an eight-day period from 18 to 25 October.
Ghana joined Africa Code Week in 2015, engaging 730 children and youth in the first year. Last year, the Dreamoval Foundation became the implementing partner for ACW in Ghana: with their support, 590 teachers were trained as part of the Train-the-Trainer sessions and an astounding 51 710 children and youth engaged in October 2016 – 56% of which were girls. Dreamoval will be, once again, the Implementing Partner for Africa Code Week 2017 in Ghana.
We have set ourselves the target of training 800 teachers this week and 150 000 young Ghanaians from October 18- 25,” says Francis Ahene-Affoh, head of business development and marketing at Dreamoval.
Train-The-Trainer workshops were held at the GNAT Hall at the Accra Polytechnic in Kumasi, with Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Education, Barbara Ayisi Acher, attending the launch. The Africa Code Week delegation also met with several Ghanaian dignitaries during the course of this training week, including Ghana Vice President His Excellency Dr Mahamudu Bamumia. For Vice President Bamumia, who has assured his full support to the initiative, “Africa Code Week is a powerful leverage for the public sector to wide-spread digital literacy on a nation-wide scale.”
According to Claire Gillissen-Duval, Director of EMEA Corporate Social Responsibility at SAP and Global Lead for Africa Code Week: “The initiative’s effectiveness in empowering the next generation of Digital Economy workers in Ghana requires knowledgeable instructors who are able to provide mentorship and skills transfer to participating youngsters.”
his year in Ghana, SAP Business One skilled volunteers travelled from all corners of the globe, volunteering their time to roll out this series of Train-The-Trainer workshops in Accra and Kumasi.
Equally critical to youth empowerment in the digital age are public-private partnerships, as Gillissen-Duval explains: “Africa Code Week relies on a fast-growing network of visionary partners, all eager to collaborate to unlock a new world of opportunities for every boy and girl across the continent. Ghana is a striking example of the far-reaching impact of collaboration and leadership on our ability to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,” she adds.
