Grace Ashiru
African Leadership International, a project-based alternative to a traditional college education formed in Silicon Valley and educating the next generation of software engineers, has agreed to buy Holberton Inc.
The goal of African Leadership International is to instill an entrepreneurial spirit in three million Africans by the year 2035 so that the continent can achieve its full potential.
Through the purchase, the company will own the advanced technology program. This will give global organizations access to a large, untapped pool of technology talent that can help make up for the growing shortage of tech talent worldwide.
Millions of Africans will also have their lives changed by ALI because it will give them the software engineering skills they need for the digital workplace of the future.
It is anticipated that the acquisition will be finalized within the third quarter. The Holberton School network will be spun out into its separate organization as part of the deal.
According to the World Economic Forum, the pandemic sped up the speed of digital disruption in nearly all industries. As a result, 97 million new jobs will be created that are better suited to the new way humans, machines, algorithms and machines work together.
The West, India and China which have traditionally been good places to find tech talent, are running short because their populations are getting older.
The number of people living in Africa is quickly increasing. It boasts of the youngest workforce globally, with an average age of just 19, which compares to an average age of 48 in Germany and Japan, respectively. By the year 2035, it is anticipated that the continent will have a labour force of 1.1 billion people, making it more populous than either China or India.
Consequently, multinational technology corporations are increasingly viewing Africa as the next frontier for recruiting technologically skilled workers. Goggle, Twitter, Alibaba, IBM and Microsoft, amongst others, are just some of the companies that have announced plans to create tech hubs in Africa over the previous three years
Because of these developments, ALI decided two years ago to form a partnership with Holberton University’s advanced technology program to swiftly expand the amount of software engineer training offered on the continent.
Over the past year, more than 95,000 students have registered in the ALX skills acceleration program offered by African Leadership International. This number represents a growth of more than 2,000 times in the past 15 months.
This world-class talent will then be connected and matched to global corporations looking to build their technology teams through The ROOM, the placement division of African Leadership International. This is analogous to the way that tech firms presently go to places in Eastern Europe and India to find talent.
With this purchase, ALI hopes to become the biggest producer of technology talent in Africa and one of the biggest in the world. Holberton technology has shown that it will be an important part of the ALI ecosystem. Companies like Google, Apple, Tesla, Dropbox, LinkedIn, Nvidia, Pinterest, and Rappi, have hired people who Holberton trained.
By combining The ROOM, career placement, Holberton’s technology and the ALX program, ALI hopes to be able to provide a world-class service that will not only establish Africa’s position as the final frontier for technology but will also provide a solution that will be long-lasting to the problem of a lack of talent in the field of technology all over the world.
African Leadership International’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Fred Swaniker, made the following statement: “Through our joint efforts to date, we’ve been able to give top-notch educational experience to young Africans at a tremendous scale.”In the twenty years, I have worked in human capital development on the continent, I have never encountered anything like this. If we continue on this path, I do not doubt that within the next ten years, we will have trained millions of Africans to become digital leaders capable of finding solutions to many of Africa’s most pressing problems.
Our goal is to become the world’s single largest source of talented individuals in the technology field.
By combining our strengths and letting African talent lead the way, this purchase would help solve the problem of a lack of tech skills worldwide.
This environment of working together on projects makes sure that every student is ready to work when they graduate. The co-founder of Holberton, Julien Barbier, said, “Our software engineers will help companies all over the world meet their technology talent needs quickly as they grow.”
Every student will be prepared for success in the workforce thanks to the environment that emphasizes teamwork and project-based learning. Julien Barbier, Co-Founder of Holberton and Software Engineer at Holberton, says, “Our software engineers will help enterprises throughout the world to swiftly grow their technological talent requirements.”
