Africa has a population of 1.2 billion and the number of working-age young people will exceed that of the rest of the world combined by 2035. In Kenya, 80% of University Students are in Humanities and Social Sciences, whereas, only 20% are in STEM courses.
While there are a lot of opportunities, only 72% of Job applicants are skilled enough to land an interview in Kenya and that is worse when it comes to Data Science roles hugely because of insufficient industry standard skills.
The way we use emerging technologies like Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence will be critical is solving challenges that we face as a continent like Healthcare, Food security and climate change will depend on the skills that we possess as Africans.
Zukademy is developing World-Class Interdisciplinary Data Science Talent from Africa through expert-led programs in Machine Learning. The curriculum has been designed by industry experts for fellows to acquire data skills relevant to the 21st Century workplace. The higher education institution has a pool of Industry experts working on game-changing projects at global and local organisations as part of a chain of mentors.
Issues of inclusivity in AI especially on Racism and Sexism have been raised with dark-skinned individuals being on the receiving end. We have seen Google launch it’s first artificial intelligence research centre in Accra, focusing initially on fairness in machine learning (ML), interpretability of ML models and the use of AI for medical diagnosis and treatment and it’s proof that we are on the right direction in providing talent for the 4th Industrial revolution.
Set up by Victor Mutua and Dennis Mutwiri; both former Google and Oracle Employees in March 2019, the Academy has attracted hundreds of applicants with only 20 making it through per cohort. The enrolment is based on merit and basic Data Skills.
