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News Briefs Technology

Strategic Partnership Enables One Million Young Women to Learn How to Code by 2030

A global leader in digital learning teams with the first African-led, global non-profit movement to accelerate skilling opportunities and improve economic outcomes for women and girls in underserved communities including refugee camps in Africa.

Global leader in corporate digital learning Skillsoft announced a strategic initiative with iamtheCODE. They are the first African-led global movement to mobilize government, private-sector, and philanthropic foundations to advance STEAMED education for women and girls in marginalized communities. The partnership supports iamtheCODE’s mission to train one million women and girl coders worldwide by 2030. Additionally, the partnership furthers goals consistent with Skillsoft’s social impact mission to open doors to new possibilities through learning.

About the program

To start, iamtheCODE will launch its digital learning platform powered by Skillsoft’s Percipio in Africa’s largest refugee camps. Tens of thousands of young girls and boys will have access to one of the richest and most intuitive learning interfaces. The curriculum focuses on teaching four core, in-demand programming languages: HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Python. Additionally, it will teach wellbeing, design, innovation, leadership and entrepreneurship in alignment with their 12-week mentoring program.

Impactful goals

Concurrent with International Women’s Day 2022, this partnership is a model of public and private cooperation. Its mission empowers marginalized women and girls across the world in line with UN Sustainable Development Goals. IamtheCODE’s mission directly implements the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to improve economic outcomes for women and girls. This goal is also a focus of the World Economic Forum’s Reskilling Revolution.

Thoughts from iamtheCODE and Skillsoft leaders

“With Skillsoft as our partner and the use of Percipio, iamtheCODE is now well-positioned to meet our ambitious goal. We aim to enable one million young women and girls to code by 2030,” said iamtheCODE CEO, Senegalese-born Lady Mariéme Jamme. “Africa is home to 1.3 billion people. This initiative addresses our technology and skill development needs to achieve sustainable scale in the continent. It includes an intuitive interface and both online and offline learning in several modalities. This is the platform where young girls can learn to code and is a significant milestone for reaching our goal. More importantly, it is helping young girls achieve theirs. Africa’s need for coders and skilled programmers is growing rapidly. I believe this historic partnership will enable qualified coders who can finally support African growing industries. We need girls to be part of it.”

“Like iamtheCODE, Skillsoft shares a deep and lasting commitment to its social impact mission and providing access to learning and skilling opportunities for underserved populations,” said Jeff Tarr, CEO of Skillsoft. “Today marks an important step in our journey. We are delighted to provide skill-building access to Skillsoft’s Percipio platform to help young learners unleash their full potential. Lady Mariéme and the team at iamtheCODE are inspiring a generation to master the skills they need. They can foster their development and gain employment, dignity and economic independence.”

“This is truly a historic and pioneering approach to addressing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,” said Lady Mariéme Jamme. “What Jeff and Skillsoft have done will change the lives of many people and give them the opportunity they never had.”

About iamtheCODE

iamtheCODE is the first African-led global movement to mobilize governments, the private sector, philanthropic foundations, investors, and civil society to advance STEAMED (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics, Entrepreneurship, and Design) education. Its goal is to mobilize multi-stakeholders to invest in future technologies driving sustainable development for women, girls, and youth in marginalized communities across the world. A fundamental pillar of iamtheCODE’s work is the empowerment of women and girls worldwide, aligning with critical elements of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

iamtheCODE is one of the fervent UN Sustainable Development Goals Advocate. The United Nations High-Level Economic Empowerment, the World Economic Forum, UN Women, Unilever, UNHRC all recognized the organization for bringing together multi-stakeholders including governments all over the world to ensure that by 2030, all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and useful learning outcomes. By 2030, our mission is to get 1 million women and girls coders.

Through iamtheCODE, youth from underprivileged backgrounds engage hands-on with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and build innovative solutions. This exercise not only helps them develop the skills they need to succeed in STEAMED fields. It also enables creativity and understanding of global problems including Climate change, Peace and Justice, and Gender Equality.

About Skillsoft

Skillsoft is a global leader in corporate digital learning, focused on transforming today’s workforce for tomorrow’s economy. The Company provides enterprise learning solutions designed to prepare organizations for the future of work, overcome critical skill gaps, drive demonstrable behavior change, and unlock the potential in their people. Skillsoft offers a comprehensive suite of premium, original, and authorized partner content, including one of the broadest and deepest libraries of leadership & business skills, technology & developer, and compliance curricula. With access to a broad spectrum of learning options (including video, audio, books, bootcamps, live events and practice labs), organizations can meaningfully increase learner engagement and retention. Skillsoft’s offerings are delivered through Percipio, its award-winning, AI-driven, immersive learning platform purpose-built to make learning easier, more accessible, and more effective. Learn more at www.skillsoft.com.

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