By Sodeinde Temidayo David
An opportunity has opened for underprivileged students in Nigeria to have digital skills through computer programming training as the nation positions itself to take full advantage of the digital economy.
This initiative is being supported by a Lagos-based organisation known as Teens Can Code in collaboration with Nordic Semiconductor, and the Micro:bit Educational Foundation, a UK not-for-profit organisation.
The trio has signed a partnership deal that will improve the capacity of Teens Can Code to teach and equip underprivileged students with skills to be creators in the digital economy.
The group will also engage in Do Your :bit Challenge, an initiative inspired by the United Nations’ Global Goals for Sustainable Development and is designed to add social purpose to digital learning by allowing students to apply their digital skills to real-world issues.
The partnership will see Nordic provide a grant to help Teens Can Code inspire hundreds of school students, particularly girls and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to learn digital skills and apply them to create social impact.
The grant will enable Teens Can Code to train teachers and volunteer educators in schools and community groups to support participants in the Micro:bit Educational Foundation’s next ‘do your :bit’ challenge.
The do your :bit challenge is an international competition for 8 to 14 year-olds, and now is extending to the range of 18 year-olds.
Teens Can Code is also set with the benefit of external funding was able to carry out workshops and training across Nigeria to inspire young people to participate in the challenge.
Speaking on the new development, the founder of Teens Can Code, Mr Damian Isaac Ezirim, noted that it would promote the efficiency of the organization.
The chief of Learning at Micro:bit Educational Foundation, Mr Magda Wood, added that Teens Can Code would use part of the funding to carry out an enhanced version of the training program provided last year with an additional technical session on how to code a micro:bit.
With the new Nordic-powered micro:bit, the duo is set to unlock more of digital creativity and it is projected that by 2025, the Micro:bit Educational Foundation aims to have reached 100 million children via 20 million devices of which would be powered by a Nordic short-range wireless SoC, to encourage and train the engineers who will build tomorrow’s connected world.
Nordic Semiconductor is a fabless semiconductor company specializing in wireless technology for the Internet of things (IoT), which describes physical objects that are embedded with sensors, processing ability, software, and other technologies.
