by TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – EXPLORE Data Science Academy (EDSA), South Africa’s world-leading data science training institute, will soon offer its range of online data science and data engineering courses in the African continent.
The academy is focusing on talent within Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and biggest economy, as well as Kenya, the largest economy in East Africa.
Africa’s rich potential in youth talent and data science underpins the expansion.
“Our aim with our data science and data engineering courses is to offer talented, ambitious and hard-working young people in that country the chance to be trained for a career that has been labelled ‘the
sexiest in the 21st century’,” Shaun Dippnall, Chief Executive Officer of EDSA, said.
“We have always cherished the goal of training young data scientists in other African countries and now, after four years of perfecting our training methods at home, we are ready to spread our wings into key African countries,” he explained.
Kenya has been identified as an ideal African country for EDSA expansion.
Students of EXPLORE Data Science Academy
According to the World Bank, during 2015-2019 Kenya’s economic growth averaged 5,7 percent, making it one of the fastest growing economies in Sub Saharan Africa.
A stable macroeconomic environment, positive investor confidence and a resilient services sector boosted this performance.
EDSA aims its courses at people between the ages of 18 and 35. This is line with the Kenyan demographic, where about 20 percent of the population is between 15 and 24.
“We were also encouraged by a recent Bowmans report which cited Kenya as having steadily achieved high levels of innovation relative to its level of development and has been an innovation achiever for nine consecutive years,” Dippnall said.
An innovation achiever is a country that outperforms on innovation compared to its peers at similar levels of development.
About 9 percent of Nigeria’s population of more than 200 million is aged between 15 and 24, which offers EDSA a potential pool of nearly 20 million young people from which to select its students.
The telecommunications sector is a key driver of growth has been singled out as one of the key drivers of development post-pandemic.
“These factors combine to make Nigeria an ideal environment in which to train young data scientists, who will make a significant difference to the efficiency and effectiveness of companies as the world moves deeper into the digital, information age,” Dippnall said.
According to Cities Alliance, an estimated 60 percent of Africa’s population is under the age of 25, making Africa the world’s youngest continent.
While close to 11 million young people join the African labour market each year, the continent generates only 3,7 million jobs annually.
EDSA, the largest data science academy in Africa, was established in 2017 offering a full-time, one year course to 100 young aspiring data science students.
The immediate success of this course prompted the academy to offer short and longer courses online.
“By going online, we can reach a far wider audience and we now train thousands of young people every year. The success of our full-time course has been phenomenal and we have a 95 percent placement rate after graduation with excellent starting salaries. Our courses are designed to be practical and deal with real world problems in business,” Dippnall said.
Potential applicants can gather all the important information, including how to apply, details of the courses available, qualifications and aptitudes needed, application deadlines and costs by visiting https://explore-datascience.net/. For more information on the EXPLORE AWS programme go to, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCkwnPur7jA
– CAJ News