Firm trains underserved kids on IT skills

BeginIT, a social educational project spearheaded by inDrive, has completed a one-day training programme for less privileged children in Nigeria with information technology skills.

The BeginIT programme is an initiative from inDrive, a global IT and transportation platform targeted at identifying and providing future career guidance for capable children from orphanages, boarding and rural schools in the sphere of new technologies.

Thirty-three students drawn from three schools owned by non-governmental organisations were groomed on different technologies, including Embedded Systems (Physical Computing with Arduino kit).

At the end of the session, the students presented projects to demonstrate their ability to identify solutions relative to transportation in their environment.

In his remarks, Director of Transport Operations, Lagos Ministry of Transportation, Olasunkanmi Ojowuro, commended inDrive for the initiative, which he said would go a long way to bring about innovations needed to transform not only the transportation sector but also other sectors in the state.

Ojowuro said: “Whatever you have learnt here, make sure you take it seriously because the more you understand, the better for us all. So, it is good to seize this opportunity as kids so that Nigeria can match up with technological advancement as it is in many developed societies. For instance, transportation has changed from what we witnessed in the past. Now, we use technology to manage transportation.”

Speaking on the theme: “InDrive: Future of mobility,” Mrs. Onuzulike Clementina, InDrive’s BeginIT Representative and Driver Acquisition specialist, explained that the initiative, which has registered its presence in 15 countries, including Nigeria, is geared towards catching kids young in the field of technology to stimulate their problem-solving skills and prepare them for the future of work.

“We believe strongly in the potential of every child regardless of the circumstance of his or her birth. We feel they need to get the knowledge in time to ensure that they can compete with their counterparts in the developed world. This is why we have come up with an initiative to enable them to reach their potential,” Clementina said.

She stated that the training would further help deepen knowledge around transportation and automobiles by helping to groom a new generation of engineers, designers and creatives.

Programme Associate, STEMCafe, Daye Omona, said the organisation was partnering with inDrive on the initiative to impart the kids by implementing a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)-based programme focused on the future of transportation.

According to Omona, the training session would afford kids the opportunity to learn concepts such as design thinking, conceptualisation and working with microcontrollers and sensors necessary to create, for example, a driverless car or blue tooth control boat.

The list of non-governmental organisations that participated in the session included Amazing Grace, Precious Jasper Foundation and Mayzer Memorial Foundation.