If you are someone who’s interested in a tech program that builds the capacity of young people in software development, then you are probably familiar with the name eHA Academy, our brainchild academy that has successfully trained several aspiring tech enthusiasts in software and web development. Here is a walkthrough of our journey so far.
The Birth of eHA Academy in 2016
In 2015, eHealth Africa was one of several organizations working in the three main West African countries that were affected by the Ebola epidemic - Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. We primarily provided support for the EVD outbreak response by building and customizing software-based solutions for contact tracing and disease surveillance. By the end of 2016, the epidemic was declared over, and as we finalized the response effort in Guinea; we identified a need. Who would maintain and improve the solutions we introduced to Guinea? There were not that many software developers living in Guinea and we decided we needed to build human capacity in-country to maintain or upgrade the digital solutions we introduced in Guinea during the epidemic. This led to the eHealth Africa team designing a program to build the capacity of young people and equip them with the skills needed to do this.
In-person class session at eHA Academy in Conakry, Guinea
In August 2016, we launched the inaugural eHA Academy in Conakry, Guinea. The software team at eHA designed an eight-week curriculum in software development and network engineering and staffed the course with expert instructors, bringing international software design and development expertise to Guinea.
The Academy was offered free of charge to all participants who were successfully admitted into the program. By the end of the first cohort, 100% of the participants completed the entire 8-week program, 15 software developers took part in eHealth Academy and three of them were so skilled that we offered them full-time positions with eHealth Africa.
Pioneer graduates, tutors, and management of the eHA Academy in Conakry, Guinea
eHA Academy Re-designed In 2019
After the successful interventions in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, we wrapped up operations in those countries. As we focused on our operations in Nigeria and on eradicating the wild poliovirus; we continued to build a larger physical presence in Kano state. Members of a small but growing tech ecosystem often contacted us to provide resources, including space for their meetings, expert speakers, and mentorship. By 2018, we were full members of this community, and our head office was an unofficial meeting space for the monthly tech meetups. Every month we had speakers come and give talks about different topics in tech and people came from neighboring states to attend the meeting in person and several joined online. Again, we noticed a need.
The need we noticed was the large number of tech enthusiasts seeking additional training for software and web development skills.
Students of the 1st Nigeria cohort of eHA Academy.
In 2019, our management team reintroduced eHA Academy to address this need. We then redesigned a new version of eHA Academy. This time we focused primarily on building the top requested skill-set, web development. In the redesign version, we introduced self-directed learning. Each participant was required to focus on completing coursework on our eLearning platform, prior to in-person workshops and sessions. We also paired each participant with a mentor, and we matched the most successful participants to an internship opportunity.
The Switch to 100% Virtual Learning Sessions
When COVID-19 Pandemic forced the world to shut down, we were 3 weeks into the 2nd Nigeria cohort of eHA Academy. We quickly pivoted to all online learning sessions, mentoring, and even internships and have a few success stories. Watch Jamiu Musa’s success story here.
After successfully completing two eHA Academy cohorts in Nigeria, we took a pause to re-evaluate the number of students we’ve trained so far, and we realized that over 70% of the total number of students trained were male. As an organization, we recognize the importance of having diversity in all sectors, especially in the technology sector. To address this, we hosted an all-female cohort of the Academy. This attracted several female participants across Africa. We recently completed the all-female cohort and here are a few testimonials from some participants.
Juliet Odogwu, eHealth Africa's Executive Director, with mentors and some graduates of the all-female cohort who attended the graduation ceremony in person.
So what is next for eHA Academy?
The academy’s primary goal is to create a platform for young people to gain first-hand experience and training in technology. We are also working with partners to expand our curriculum to train more people in more aspects of innovative technology, from data science to artificial intelligence to machine learning.
The schedule of the Academy is to implement two cohorts every year, and young people interested in web and software development are welcome to apply. To better prepare yourself and increase your chances of being selected to be part of the next cohort, here is a free course we recommend for you to take.
We invite you to get involved
We are constantly looking to increase the number of participants we take on for every cohort we implement. eHA Academy needs your donation to increase the number of software and web developers in Africa. We have an ongoing donation campaign on the GlobalGiving platform where you can either make a one-time donation or commit to a monthly or yearly donation. We are also accepting donations on academy.ehealthafrica.org as well.
Another way to get involved is by signing up to be a mentor. To find out more about becoming a mentor and to apply, click here.