Natview Technology piloted a digital skills development programme for girls and young women in Nigeria. The programme, Fasaha 4.0, loosely translated as “knowledge economy 4.0” is designed to identify, prepare and connect disadvantaged girls and young women with emerging skills in the knowledge economy. The programme aims to integrate more females into the digital ecosystem and significantly improve girls and women’s economic participation in the digital space. The pilot research is inspired by the experimentation of comparative analysis of different learning delivery models (physical learning, remote learning, and blended learning) to determine the effectiveness of learning and the corresponding impact in accessing the digital ecosystem for both formal and informal opportunities in the workplace.

180 young women were shortlisted from thousands of applications across Nigeria. 32 of these young women were selected from 3 internally displaced persons camps in Abuja. In addition to the digital skills training, the programme also offered safe spaces, childcare, and psychosocial support to the women. The Natview Technology team upscaled the digital infrastructure in one of the IDP camps; the Kuchin Goro IDP Camp by converting an old trailer into a hub fully equipped with digital tools.

Fasaha 4.0 also selected and trained 150 young women across Nigeria. These women were trained on Data Science, UX/UI designs and Digital/Content marketing. The training delivery method was through blended learning and remote learning.

The programme has successfully connected some of its participants with female tech leaders who serve as mentors, internships and remote jobs opportunities.

Over the years, we have designed and successfully implemented several technology programs that provide innovators across the public sector and the developmental space with platforms for experimenting and using the power of technology to confront real world challenges and policy issues by providing exciting ways to generate data for decision making. One of such programmes is the data science fellowship - a five-year program aimed at supporting the Kaduna State in implementing a data revolution plan to strengthen the coordination in collection and use of data for evidence-based decision making.

It is designed to provide fellows with a six-month intensive training, a cohort of 25 persons each year. This was launched under the Click-On Kaduna Human Capital Development initiative through a grant from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The program is focused on improving the data culture of the state in using data to solve human-related policy and governance issues, building the capacity of youths on data science for sustainability and improving the digital economy.

The Click-On Kaduna Digital Skills Development Program was designed to help increase employment in Kaduna state for disadvantaged youth aged between 18-40 by catalyzing the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for economic opportunity creation. In 2019, the programme armed 180 youth with basic and advanced digital skills to support increased technology adoption and innovation in the state. The programme had two different tranches; Programming and Tech and Graphics Design, with female-specific classes, and job-matching upon graduation.

The Programming and Tech Stream was designed to build core competency around the use of web authoring content management platforms like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal whilst getting intermediate competency on developing web and mobile based solution using the latest web authoring programming language like HTML5, CSS, PHP/MYSQL, Angular JS and JavaScript to deliver web and mobile solutions required by industry players. Participants who completed the series became proficient in developing web and mobile app solutions while also managing and developing rapid web applications through renowned content management platforms like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal. The series ensured participants understood the use of software engineering and project management principles to deploy solutions that are scalable and usable.

The Virtual Training on Remote Jobs is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Project supported by WACOM and Natview Technology to deliver relevant skills that can upscale the digital preparedness of youths in Kaduna State for the post-COVID-19 era where digital jobs will continuously define the new normal. During the peak of the pandemic in Nigeria, 250 young people were supported virtually to achieve hands-on, practical training on emergent digital skills such as 3D animations, graphic designing, entrepreneurship skills, and content marketing.