EXPLORE Data Science Academy Launches Online Courses into Africa with Focus on Nigeria and Kenyan Markets

Africa’s rich potential in youth talent and data science underpins move

Cape Town, May 3, 2021 South Africa’s world-leading data science training institute, the Explore Data Science Academy (EDSA), will soon offer its range of online data science and data engineering courses in Africa.  The academy is putting its focus on talent within Nigeria and Kenya. 

According to Cities Alliance  an estimated 60% of Africa’s population is under the age of 25, making Africa the world’s youngest continent. While close to 11 million young people join the African labour market each year, the continent generates only 3.7 million jobs annually.

“Our aim with our data science and data engineering courses is to offer talented, ambitious and hard-working young people in Africa the chance to be trained for a career that has been labelled “the sexiest in the 21st century,” says Shaun Dippnall, CEO of EXPLORE Data Science Academy.

“We have always cherished the goal of training young data scientists in other African countries and now, after four years of perfecting our training methods at home, we are ready to spread our wings into key African countries,” he explains.

The EDSA was established in 2017 offering a full-time, one year course to 100 young aspiring data science students.  The immediate success of this course prompted the academy to offer short and longer courses online.  

“By going online, we can reach a far wider audience and we now train thousands of young people every year.  The success of our full-time course has been phenomenal and we have a 95% placement rate after graduation with excellent starting salaries.  Our courses are designed to be practical and deal with real world problems in business,” says Dippnall.

Kenya an innovation achiever

Kenya has been identified as an ideal African country for EDSA expansion.  According to the World Bank, during 2015-2019 Kenya’s economic growth averaged 5.7%, making it one of the fastest growing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa. This performance was boosted by a stable macroeconomic environment, positive investor confidence and a resilient services sector.  

Dippnall continues,

“We aim our courses at young people between the ages of 18 and 35 and this fits perfectly into the Kenyan demographic, where about 20 percent of the population is between 15 and 24.  We were also encouraged by a recent Bowmans report which cited Kenya as having steadily achieved high levels of innovation relative to its level of development and has been an innovation achiever (a country that outperforms on innovation compared to its peers at similar levels of development) for nine consecutive years.” 

Nigeria has the largest economy and the biggest population in Africa, with more than 200 million people.  About 9% of the population is aged between 15 and 24, which offers EDSA a potential pool of nearly twenty million young people from which to select its students.  

Nigeria telecoms is key driver of growth

Dippnall adds,

“Nigeria’s telecoms sector has been singled out as one of the key drivers of growth post-pandemic.  These factors combine to make Nigeria an ideal environment in which to train young data scientists, who will make a significant difference to the efficiency and effectiveness of companies as the world moves deeper into the digital, information age.”

The data science universe is expanding in complexity and EDSA is right up there, offering courses in:

• Its flagship learning pathway, Data Science, where students uncover the magic of how data can be used to solve difficult problems in any context.

• Data Engineering: learn how to store, move, process and manage the powerful data platforms that run large enterprises.

• Data Analytics, gathering and analysing data to deliver business insights.

• Business Intelligence: mastering the art of telling stories from data through beautiful, insightful and value-driving visualisations.

EXPLORE Data Science Academy was recently appointed by Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its training partner. 

Dippnall concludes,

“The innovative design of our learning platform and the passion of our scientist facilitators equip EXPLORE learners to do great things.  Facilitators are experienced in tackling real-world problems and skilfully mentor learners throughout the programme.”

Potential applicants can gather all the important information, including how to apply, details of the courses available, qualifications and aptitudes needed, application deadlines and costs by visiting https://explore-datascience.net/.  For more information on the EXPLORE programme go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCkwnPur7jA

About EXPLORE Data Science Academy (EDSA)

The EXPLORE Data Science Academy is the largest data science academy in Africa. It is led by top South African academics and practitioners with decades of experience in teaching and real-world problem solving. The academy is supported by a number of large South African corporates and Amazon Web Services as its Exclusive Machine Learning platform provider. EXPLORE’s consulting business is currently solving complex business problems in a number of AI and data science projects with leading UK and European businesses, such as Thames Water, Nordic Guarantee and CRP.

Issued on behalf of: EXPLORE Data Science Academy

Client contact:                 Shaun Dippnall

Mobile:                             +27 82 999 0027