About the Initiative
The African App Launchpad (AAL) initiative is an Africa-wide platform aiming to build capacity of Youth from Egypt and other African States and foster establishment of sustainable startups in the area of the advanced ever-changing app and game technologies.
AAL targets to build capacity of 10,000 young calibers and support the establishment of 100 startups in gaming and app development across all Africa. AAL works by availing a high-quality, technology-learning online platform through crowd-sourcing top online content developed by prestigious universities and leading companies, and delivered through three leading MOOCs; Coursera, edX, and Udacity.
Objectives
- Building capacity and certifying young African calibers on the recent advances in app and game technologies.
- Supporting creation of job and business opportunities for the African youth through wage employment, freelancing, and startup establishment.
- Increasing the competitiveness of African ICT companies by availing an abundant talent pool.
- Forming Africa-wide learning networks in leading technologies to act as platform for fostering technology innovation and entrepreneurship
Benefits
- Free top-quality learning track in one of the advanced app and game technologies.
- Prestigious international certificate after successfully completing the learning track.
- Potential chance to attend a local learning group to experience cross learning and discuss business impact of the underlying technologies.
- Opportunity to join startup competitions where each winning startup is awarded USD 2K in additional to possible seed fund or incubation service.
- Being informed of Africa-wide employment opportunities.
Eligibility
- Citizens of each officially participating African state can apply through the initiative website.
- Applicants are accepted as learners subject to fulfilling the following criteria: (Updated on 7th of Aug. 2019)
- A higher-education college graduate of year 2006 at most or will graduate within 2 years (by 2021). Can access all tracks.
- Non-ICT applicants and junior university students are eligible for some introductory tracks. If non-ICT applicants are interested in other ICT tracks, a good knowledge of essential ICT technologies is recommended through the following:
- Min. 2-years work track in ICT.
- Min. 6-month international training record in software technologies.
| The scholarship slots are limited and include verified certificates from some of the most recognized institutions in the world, including Google, Unity, Stanford University, Michigan State University, and the University of Colorado. |
| This scholarship grant, sponsored by ITIDA, provides a path for learners to select from 13 different online learning specializations on Coursera’s platform, focused on App and Game Development, which are: |
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| With 19 African countries participating in the initiative, the scholarship aims to build the IT professional capabilities of 10,000 talented youth across Africa, and to foster establishment of 100 African startups in the area of app and game innovation. |
