- …Oracle Academy & IIPGH organized a Coding boot camp for students
The Digitalisation drive of the Government of Ghana requires digital skills development of the youth to take advantage of new jobs being created as a result of the digital transformation initiatives. To contribute towards developing the skills of young people, Oracle Academy (OA) in partnership with the Institute of ICT Professionals Ghana (IIPGH) organized a one-day virtual coding boot camp on 19th October 2021, for undergraduate students in Ghana on how to build scalable enterprise applications using Oracle Application Express (APEX).
The training was attended by close to 300 participants from over 30 tertiary institutions in Ghana. Most of the participants were students of the University of Ghana, Tamale Technical University, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University of Cape Coast, Ho Technical University, Accra Technical University, Ghana Communication Technology University, Kumasi Technical University, and University of Professional Studies, Accra. The participants were extremely appreciative and enthused about the training.
In his opening remarks Mr. Eric Hagan, Service Sales Account Manager, Oracle Ghana revealed that Oracle is keen on getting more developers to learn APEX in Ghana because, as an emerging technology country, Ghana has an enormous youth population with unimaginable cosmic potential. He further stated that such an opportunity will open some avenues for some global application development giants to emerge from Ghana.
Oracle APEX is a low-code development platform that enables users to build scalable, secure enterprise applications, with world-class features, that can be deployed anywhere.
Using APEX, developers can quickly develop and deploy compelling applications that solve real problems and provide immediate value. You won’t need to be an expert in a vast array of technologies to deliver sophisticated solutions. Focus on solving the problem and let APEX take care of the rest.
Brief submissions by Guest Speakers
The training, which was moderated by the Executive Director of IIPGH; Mr. David Gowu, kicked off with a brief welcome message from him. He then continued with the program outline explaining the order in which the various speakers would present.
The opening remark was followed by a welcome note from Mr. Samuel Etteh, Senior Solutions Engineer, Oracle. He expressed appreciation to Oracle Academy and IIPGH for putting together this enablement session for students. He encouraged the participants to embrace the training to improve their skills and marketability in this ever-changing job market. He also advised the participants to seize the opportunity as a starting point to accelerate their skill sets to develop practical solutions that can make them competitive in the job market.
Mrs. Bekere Amassoma, Oracle Academy Program Manager for Sub Saharan Africa gave an overview of Oracle Academy and how students can benefit from it. She emphasized why technology knowledge and skills are key. She added that; well-paying jobs in nearly all fields require computing knowledge, and there are more open technology-related jobs globally than there are skilled workers to fill those jobs. She also spoke on the free teaching and learning resources for educators and learners. Learners and educators have access to Oracle Academy academic curriculum, career Learning resources, Oracle Professional Certification Pathways, and Oracle Cloud. She encouraged the participants to take professional certification courses to give them a competitive edge over their peers. She concluded by encouraging institutions to join Oracle Academy for their teachers and students to enjoy all the free teaching and learning resources.
Mr. David Gowu then concluded the guest speakers’ session by enumerating the aims and objectives of IIPGH as follows: mobilizing professionals, students, and businesses; training students and professionals; educating the public; influencing policy formulation; providing opportunities through networking; leading in technology advocacy. He also mentioned that the institute runs a Digital Design & Creative Coding Hub in Accra and satellite centers in other cities where young people are trained in emerging technologies, 3D design, coding, and many others.
Training
Mr. Chaitanya Koratamaddi, Senior Principal Product Manager of Oracle APEX, who is one of the facilitators, made a presentation on the topic “Beginner’s guide to Oracle APEX”. He said data is the world’s most valuable resource and the most critical and valuable asset for any organization. Data-driven organizations are far more valuable because of the insight from analyzing their data.
He said a low-code development platform (LCDP) will help solve some of the challenges faced by organizations. LCDP is a software that provides an environment programmers use to create applications through graphical user interfaces and configuration instead of traditional computer programming. LCDP is easy on-ramp, super productive, accessible, scalable, extensible, and has rich functionality. Research by Gartner concluded that “By 2024, low-code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity.” He mentioned Business Analysts, non-IT Professionals, IT Professionals, Database Developers, Database Administrators, DevOps, and Students as those who can use LCDP.
He also explained Oracle APEX, its characteristics, and architecture. He talked about Oracle APEX application development service which consists of APEX Application Development and Deployment, Oracle Autonomous Database and Exadata, and Cloud Infrastructure which is free forever. He concluded by demonstrating how to create an application on APEX using data from a spreadsheet and also took the participants through a hands-on lab to create an application using APEX. You can read more on Oracle APEX via: https://apex.oracle.com.
The second Facilitator; Mr. Salim Hlayel, Product Manager, Oracle APEX took the participants through another hands-on lab on Oracle APEX Shopping Cart. You can use this link bit.ly/shopping-cart-lab to access the hands-on manual for creating a shopping cart application using APEX. He concluded by urging the participants to keep on practicing and create other applications using APEX.
In her closing remarks, Mrs. Bekere Amassoma thanked the facilitators, guest speakers, IIPGH, and the participants for their dedication, time, and effort for a successful program. She hoped the students would be able to take the training forward and come out with great solutions that can solve problems in Ghana.
Mr. David Gowu also showed appreciation to Oracle Academy for bringing such an opportunity to students in Ghana, and also thanked the students for attending the training.
About Oracle Academy & Institute of ICT Professionals Ghana (IIPGH)
Oracle Academy is Oracle’s global, philanthropic educational program that advances computing education around the world to increase knowledge, innovation, skills development, and diversity in technology fields. Oracle Academy offers educators and their students free resources to teach and learn information technology courses. This includes curriculum, learning resources, Oracle cloud technologies, software, support, and professional certification resources.
The Institute of ICT Professionals, Ghana (IIPGH) is a professional association that is made up of professionals in various domains of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) practice. The Institute is a connector of ICT professionals from Government MDAs, educational institutions, corporate organizations, start-ups, investors, and civil society organizations to create a vibrant ICT ecosystem.
The writer is a Digital Skills Facilitator, Institute of ICT Professionals, Ghana (IIPGH). Email: [email protected] Mobile: +233247154259
