- University plans to expand the VMware IT Academy program to other higher educational institutions in East Africa
- Program will assist in mobilising IT learners across East Africa helping them enter the digital workforce
NAIROBI, KENYA, 5 August 2020 – VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW), a leading innovator in enterprise software, and @iLabAfrica-Strathmore Universitys’ Research and Innovation Centre, today announced they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish the University as the first Regional VMware IT Academy for East Africa. In this role, @iLabAfrica-Strathmore University, plans to continue to offer VMware IT Academy training as part of its own curriculum, but will also be responsible for implementing the VMware IT Academy program across other higher educational institutions in East Africa. This will help bolster digital skills across the continent and encourage economic prosperity linked to digital skills transfer.
Research[1] has shown that the African continent continues to face a technical skills shortage, further highlighted by the sweeping impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on business’ ability to embrace remote working policies. Digitalisation is expected to play a vital role in supporting the region’s post-pandemic recovery efforts, and investment in digital skills is an important element of this. As a Regional VMware IT Academy, @iLabafrica-Strathmore University will help accelerate the delivery of VMware IT Academy training, technical skills and certifications to learners as well as learning institutions across East Africa.
“We are delighted to be selected as the first Regional VMware IT Academy in East Africa. Over the last ten months we have worked tirelessly to ensure that the members of our Faculty of IT have the right skills to support the curriculum, and are in a position to assist in empowering our youth to better embrace and accelerate their knowledge of the digital skills required to support and building modern, technology-centric businesses across the continent. Last year, we announced that our goal was to become the first regional lead, achieving this in less than a year is testimony to both our commitment as Strathmore University as well as the desire amongst young Africans to embrace the new digital future,” said Dr. Joseph Sevilla- Director, @iLabAfrica – Strathmore University.
“In order to facilitate our customers and partners in Africa to better gear their businesses towards being digital and cloud-first businesses, we need to equip people with the digital skills required to support this shift. Working with @iLabafrica-Strathmore University has highlighted the hunger amongst Africa’s youth for technical skills that support virtualization, digitalisation and cloud-first technologies, as well as the tenacity of educational institutions to ensure they have the right partnerships in place to enable the delivery of world-class curriculum. This is a big milestone for learners in the region and we are committed to the continual development of this collaboration, curriculum and Strathmore’s educators,” said Everline Kamau, Strategic Partner Business Manager – East Africa, VMware.
Already a VMware IT Academy, Strathmore has made significant strides in incorporating and embedding the VMware curriculum into its Faculty of IT (@iLabAfrica,a Centre of Excellence in Research and Innovation in Information Communication Technology at the University). In addition, to date, it has over 100 students enrolled in a host of VMware-led courses. To support these learners, it has four trainers certified up to vSphere 6.5., seven certified up to VCA-DBT and 12 trainers who have completed an introduction to virtualization course.
Strathmore University plans to offer VMware IT Academy training to other educational institutions, and this training will be delivered on VMware-provided devices using VMware-provided curriculum. The university has appointed a dedicated administration team to manage the academy and is currently deploying train-the-trainer sessions in order to recruit additional academies from various universities in the region to the programme. It is also in the process of rolling out a student ambassador programme in numerous universities and will offer life skills sessions by way of career talks, job shadowing and a-day-in-the-life webinars.
About @iLabAfrica Centre
@iLabAfrica is a Centre of Excellence in ICT Innovation and Development at Strathmore University. The centre spearheads Research and Innovation in Information Communication Technology for the Development (ICT4D) of ecosystems towards the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to contribute toward Kenya’s Vision 2030. The research centre is involved in interdisciplinary research, students’ engagement and has partnered with over 800 institutions (Universities, NGOs, foundations, and government) worldwide and other funding agencies. For more information, please visit www.ilabafrica.ac.ke
About VMware IT Academy
VMware IT Academy works with a global network of educational institutions to provide students access to high-quality learning certification opportunities and hands-on lab experiences with VMware technologies. VMware provides free curriculum and materials, with the goal of helping students jump-start their software careers. In 2018, VMware IT Academy worked with 2,400 institutions in 79 countries and provided 1.3 million free software downloads for educational purposes.