Women In Agile conference set to hold, bridge digital skill gap

To ensure that women focus on technology as a means of upscaling, meet up with present societal requirements, the Women In Agile (WIA) conference is set to hold virtually this month.

With the theme, Uniting and transforming Africa across Agile, convener of the conference, Mercy George-Igbafe, said it is aimed at bridging the digital skill gap as there are more than 230 million jobs available globally in the digital industry, but lack of needed skills is denying Nigerians, especially youths and women access.

“Our aim is to create awareness, exploring innovative opportunities for Africans by advancing Agile values and principles, creating a safe space for networking, developing new skills, sharing ideas and flourishing together.”

George-Ibafe, who is also the Founder, Learntor, a digital capacity building outfit, she said that Africa is already at a disadvantage in the global tech space, so has to up skill quickly to meet up with the continuous rapid evolution of the industry.

She noted that it is not in the best interest of the continent with over 1.3 billion people who are mostly youths.

According to her, the conference would witness 85 speakers’ from 18 countries and will be streamed in three languages – French, Portuguese and English.

For President of Junior Chambers International (JCI), Wale Bakare, “its collaboration with Learntor would help expose more youths to necessary digital skills. Technology is fast evolving and utterly is important to help people skill up and secure relevant jobs existing today”.

Bakare explained that JCI focuses on individual, business and community development and also help to sustain and rebuild economies. He highlighted the challenge of employability in Africa and called on youths to acquire technical skills as a solution.

Veteran Actor, Fred Amata who benefitted from Scrum training organised by Learntor, expressed excitement that he has unskilled his knowledge in the technology space.

Amata, who graduated best in his cohort, said the skill would avail him the opportunity to work for major tech firms remotely.

He noted that there are over 60 million jobs available and can be accessed through phone. He added that such jobs can be financially rewarding and worth the skill upgrade.

Business Analyst, Bisi Alimi said it was wrong for people to think that without having a science background, they could not become digitally savvy, adding that technology is not a threat, but requires the right mindset.

She added that anyone could adapt into Agile, which is a set of believes, values and principles that one uses to respond to change.