Skillsoft has launched a joint initiative with iamtheCODE to support its mission to train 1 million women and girl coders globally by 2030. 

Skillsoft’s Percipio, a digital learning platform, will be harnessed by iamtheCODE to teach communities, including young girls and boys in Africa’s largest refugee camps, who will have online and offline access to one of the world’s best learning interfaces.

The curriculum will teach four core in-demand programming languages and skills development in wellbeing, design, innovation, leadership, and entrepreneurship.

The partnership is consistent with Skillsoft’s social impact mission to open doors to new possibilities through learning and aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals to empower marginalised women and girls across the world.

iamtheCODE is the first African-led global movement to mobilise government, private-sector, and philanthropic foundations to upskill women and girls as coders in marginalised communities.

Their founding mission follows the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to improve economic outcomes for women and girls and focuses on the World Economic Forum’s Reskilling Revolution.

Through their support, youth from underprivileged backgrounds engage hands-on with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, build innovative solutions, and learn how to code. They aim to use their learnings to tackle major global issues such as Climate change and gender inequality.

Africa is home to 1.3 billion people. This initiative addresses our technology and skill development needs to achieve sustainable scale in the continent, including an encouraging and intuitive interface, online and offline learning in several modalities, and a data-driven approach to accurately measure the effectiveness of our programmes.

iamtheCODE CEO Lady Mariéme Jamme said: “With Skillsoft as our partner and the use of Percipio, iamtheCODE is now well-positioned to meet our ambitious goal of enabling 1 million young women and girls to code by 2030.

“This is the platform where young girls can go and learn how to code and is a significant milestone for helping us reach our goal and, more importantly, helping the 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.

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

Jeff Tarr, CEO of Skillsoft, added: “This marks an important step in our journey, and we are delighted to provide skill-building content and 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 skills they need to foster their development and gain employment, dignity and economic independence.”

To find out more about iamtheCODE, click here.