Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education is a growing focus in Africa. More than ever, people are recognising the importance of including STEM-related disciplines in the education curriculum.
The future of STEM education would best be achieved through collaborations that provide immersive education for interested students while creating channels to increase the interest of students. Collaborations that create an avenue for stakeholders to share resources, and build on one another’s experience and expertise, while pooling resources through their networks. Collaboration that fosters a harmonious working relationship with the regulator and the regulated for sustainable impact.
Against this backdrop, OpenLabs has collaborated with Tomorrow Breed, an innovation and growth consultancy for early-stage start-ups, with a keen interest in technology education and up-skilling.
This partnership will see both entities pull resources together to drive STEM education, inclusion, and innovation with three flagship programmes.
Speaking at the signing, Klenam Koku Fiadzoe, an alumnus of Open Labs (Formerly NIIT), hinted at Tomorrow Breed’s interest in STEM education and business match-making for early-stage start-ups. He highlighted the broad role technology plays within industrialisation, mechanisation, innovation, and the global sharing economy.
The three main components of the initiative include the STEM Prize – a full/partial scholarship programme, especially for interested and needy girls for select practical courses facilitated by OpenLabs. The courses under this programme include social media marketing & content development, HTML5 programming, and data analytics & techniques. Through this partnership, we will be able to provide more opportunities for interested but needy students.
Second is the STEM Immersion days – this programme will take STEM education and skills training on the road to select second-cycle schools in urban and rural areas. It will deliver first-hand skills training in modern technologies, while identifying potential among students.
And thirdly, the Corporate Tech Training – this will include crash tech skills training sessions for corporate entities to up-skill employees in relevant tech and social media-related disciplines to help in business forecasting, innovation, strategy, and growth with data and analytics. These boot camps will help businesses understand how important it is for them to invest in their employees’ education and career growth by offering them training and resources so they can continue learning throughout their lives.
General Manager in charge of Marketing at OpenLabs, Joana Abbiw, invited like-minded companies and organisations to join and support the fantastic initiative.
