THE CHALLENGE
Rural areas across Africa (such as
Turkana, North Kenya) often have poor infrastructure, limited access to
markets, very few formal job opportunities, and consequently suffer from high
levels of unemployment and little opportunity for moving out of poverty.
Turkana in particular has infertile soil that does not support sustainable
agriculture, with the majority of food supplies having to be transported from
cities several hours away. Local businesses including basket weaving,
mechanical repairs and small kiosks exist, however none of these scale to
provide widespread employment opportunities or meaningful wages. And yet, with around 900.000 inhabitants,
Turkana holds an untapped potential of human talent with the chance of having
internet access even in some of the most remote areas.
OUR CONCEPT
Learning
Lions is a
non-profit program that selects, educates and trains young adults living
outside urban areas with few job opportunities in high-value skills like
software development, graphic design and media production. It is focused on hands-on skills taught by
volunteers from around the world that can immediately be used to generate
income online. Our follow up program Startup
Lions (www.startuplions.org) then
helps our trained “Lions” to use the skills they acquired in the training to
create their own business in our lakeside IT-Hub, while we source clients for
them from around the world.
TEACHING APPROACH
1. The Basic Training
Learning Lions offers the
selected students a structured learning plan with a specific timeframe and
clear learning objectives. In the first 3 months learning period they undergo a
curriculum, developed by our partner organization Tunapanda aimed to take
people with little or no computer skills to a comparable level of young adults
in the developed world who had much earlier access to computers. The program
includes self‐paced video tutorials, instructor‐led learning and practical
training. They learn the basics of programming, graphic design, video and music production.
Another very important aspect of
this training are the soft skills. Communication, Teamwork, time management and
presentation skills are boosted.
2. The advanced training
Those students who performed well in the basic training are then invited to stay on campus as trainees. They will use code academy and similar courses to advance on their skills. Additional to that, we group them in teams of 3 to 10 members, for instructor-led task-based learning. For this we are looking for motivated volunteers with practical experience to share their knowledge.
Trainees will learn how to deliver against a client's
objective within a specific timeframe and collect feedback on the quality of
their work and project management ability. Trainees also build up a portfolio
of references showcasing their quality. This will set the foundation for their
path to entrepreneurship and will help them to set up their own little business
in a subsequent step. The young Lions have an amazing energy and huge potential. They only
need help to transform this energy into a structured form which will help them
to build a successful future.
LOCATION AND SETUP
We are starting to build an
ICT-Center in Loropio (Kalimapus area) at the shores of Lake Turkana (Kenya)
between Kalokol and Kataboi. At this center our “Lions” can live, learn, train
and eventually become entrepreneurs in a campus-like environment that provides
them with the best preconditions to make a successful career. We estimate completion in 2018. Until then we
are successfully operating from our campus in Lodwar (Turkana County, Kenya).