A Nigeria based Data Science and Artificial Intelligence education organization, Coven Works has concluded the schooling and mentoring of 100 young Nigerians for a period of twelve weeks and secured placements for each trainee in a three-month internship, where they will work in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence related job functions.
The company said the essence of the training is for them to be able to face the transformative economic, social and environmental challenges of Globalization 4.0, which demands investment in people.
“Valuing human capital not only serves to equip individuals with the knowledge and skills to respond to systematic shifts, but it also empowers them to take part in creating a more, equal and sustainable world. 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’ Country Director, Mr. Dunsin Fatuase said at the Project Demonstration day of the Beneficiaries.
He promised 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 the Africa continent can say it has a refined workforce fully ready for the future of work.
Speaking further, Fatuase stated that the 100 beneficiaries will boost lives, projects and technical confidence to better the African market with their new skillset.
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 since inception been on the path of supporting as many Nigerians to realize their role in the country’s social-economic system and it was 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 the future of work.
The impact of these skills being acquired has been heralded by some of the direct beneficiaries of the training programme 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 have 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.
