Why coding?

At 64%, Uganda has the highest youth unemployment rates in the world. Urban youth are four times more likely to be unemployed than rural youth. Female youth are twice as likely to be unemployed compared to male youth (The Brookings Institute, Washington)

Africa is home to 1.2billion people and 7 out of the world’s 10 fastest growing internet populations (GSMA)

Software engineering is now the world’s most in demand profession. here are five open jobs for every software developer looking for one in the U.S. alone. In the EU it is estimated that there will be a shortage of over 560,000 ICT professionals by 2020 (The Financial Times)

Established giants such as Facebook (19%), Google (20%), Apple (23%), Microsoft (19%) and Twitter (17%) struggle to employ women (The Financial Times)

Current Campaign

Code Queen

The Problem

Kampala has a bustling and growing tech scene – there is a huge demand for ICT skills from both corporates and start-ups, and not enough supply due to inadequate training opportunities. University courses are not geared towards developing practical work skills.

Existing programmes in the region are scare and do not have a focus on connecting talent with local jobs. There are additional challenges for women who lack the confidence and conviction to pursue male dominated careers.

Our Solution

We have partnered with The Innovation Village (a local start up hub) to bring a high quality course training young Ugandan women in coding, equipping them with the skills to find jobs in software development and STEM careers.

The course not only focuses on developing hard coding skills (in collaboration with local businesses), but also developing other attributes such as positive mind set and work readiness. It ends with a hackathon where students solve real time challenges for local businesses leading. Successful graduates are offered internships, scholarships and other linking opportunities through our ecosystem of partners.

The Impact

WE LINKED 80% OF OUR FIRST COHORT to jobs. internships and scholarships. PREVIOUS STUDENTS HAVE ALSO COME BACK TO FACILITATE NEW COHORTS.

Our previous cohorts has resulted in graduates going on to work internationally for Tata and locally at Trustful Trade, Kanzu Code and Laboremus.

We have just finished running our current cohort through COVID-19. Normally students come to the Innovation Village to participate but this became impossible after lock down. We thought we would have to shut the program down due to lack of infrastructure many of these young women face; they can’t afford laptops & data. Despite the challenges, 50% of them managed to show up online every day through agility, resilience, resourcefulness and commitment. They learnt new skills and completed a hackathon challenge set by Safe Boda (our previous partners include Prudential Uganda and Fenix International). We are now working on linking successful graduates to opportunities that include internships, jobs and scholarships. And once lock down ends, we look forward to reserving those that are just not able to make it online.

Success stories

With a background in micro financing small businesses, Sandra Nanteza speaks with us about how she is using the skills she learnt through the Code Queen program and why it was important to her to be a facilitator.

Eva Mirembe talks to us about what inspired her to pursue a career in programming through the Code Queen initiative.