Skillsoft partners iamtheCODE to advance STEAMED education and train 1m young women and girls on coding
Skillsoft, a global player in corporate digital learning, has announced a strategic initiative with iamtheCODE, the first African-led global movement to mobilize government, private-sector, and philanthropic foundations to advance STEAMED education for women and girls in marginalized communities.
The partnership is designed to support iamtheCODE’s mission to train 1 million women and girl coders worldwide by 2030 and is consistent with Skillsoft’s social impact mission to open doors to new possibilities through learning.
To start with, iamtheCODE will be launching its digital learning platform powered by Skillsoft’s Percipio in Africa’s largest refugee camps where tens of thousands of young girls and boys will have online and offline access to one of the world’s richest and most intuitive learning interfaces.
The curriculum focuses on teaching four core, in-demand programming languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python), as well as skills development in wellbeing, design, innovation, leadership, and entrepreneurship in alignment with their 12 week mentoring program.
Concurrent with International Women’s Day 2022, this partnership is designed as a model of public and private cooperation that aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals to empower marginalized women and girls across the world. iamtheCODE’s mission is a direct implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to improve economic outcomes for women and girls and is also a focus of the World Economic Forum’s Reskilling Revolution.
“With Skillsoft as our partner and the use of Percipio, iamtheCODE is now well positioned to meet our ambitious goal of enabling 1 million young women and girls to code by 2030,” said iamtheCODE CEO and Senegalese born, Lady Mariéme Jamme. “Africa is home to 1.3 billion people and this initiative addresses our technology and skill development needs to achieve sustainable scale in the continent including an encouraging and intuitive interface, online and offline learning in several modalities, and a data driven approach to accurately measure the effectiveness of our programs. This is the platform where young girls can go and learn how to code and is a significant milestone for helping us reach our goal and more importantly helping the young girls achieve theirs. Africa’s need for coders and skilled programmers is growing rapidly. I believe this historic partnership will enable qualified coders who can finally support African growing industries. We need girls to be part of it.”
“Like iamtheCODE, Skillsoft shares a deep and lasting commitment to its social impact mission and providing access to learning and skilling opportunities for underserved populations,” said Jeff Tarr, CEO, Skillsoft. “Today marks an important step in our journey and we are delighted to provide skill-building content and access to Skillsoft’s Percipio platform to help young learners unleash their full potential. Lady Mariéme and the team at iamtheCODE are inspiring a generation to master skills they need to foster their development and gain employment, dignity and economic independence.”
“This is truly a historic and pioneering approach to addressing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,” said Lady Mariéme Jamme. “What Jeff and Skillsoft have done will change the lives of many people and give the opportunity they never had.”
