The Learning Tree.

Learning is an integral part of human existence, it shapes or places one on a new cause and launches one further into deeper understanding in any field.

Like other integral parts of being human, learning is strategic. Yes, to learn effectively requires strategy. Over time, different institutions have applied various approaches to help an individual learn faster. Research on improving learning processes is on the rise.

Outside formal education which relies on traditional school settings as a method for learning(a not so reliable method in helping individual build the necessary skillset), methods like apprenticeship, mentorship, learning communities, discipleship, peer grouping have proven to be a more reliable source of prepping individuals for job ready skill sets.

In tech; communities, meet-ups and forums like forloop, ALC, djangogirls, meet-ups like this etc, has helped churned out and shaped more developers than any tertiary institution. While formal education focuses on knowing, these communities transcend beyond knowing to doing, therefore creating better impact.

Discipleship has proven over the years to be one of the most effective ways of raising formidable skilled individual across sectors. Jesus used and recommended this approach (Matthew 28 : 19) . The church uses this approach to advance her movement and it’s gradually creeping into the tech system of raising world class developers. The discipleship approach cuts mainly across mentorship and apprenticeship.

The structure of discipleship is likened to a Tree. The root represents individual(s), group(s) who started the initiative. A parent node represent individual(s), group(s) who benefitted and reached out to others to become part of the initiative. A leaf node is a benefactor that hasn’t reach out to any. The strength of a node is determined by the strength of the network of its parent. As you walk down a tree, you transverse through a wealth of knowledge accessible by all members of the tree.

I started the year with exploring ways I could help train mobile developers from newbie to project ready developers. Having an opportunity to volunteer in the ALC programme and been through early stages of development, I’ve come to understand the fears of young developers and the need to build a network that can help one thrive.

Lots of ideas came to my mind on how I can start this initiative, ensure participants receive quality training on developing android applications and also continue to raise others in this light (with or without my involvement). After considering series of effective approach, I have resulted to implementing the Tree Approach.

Going forward, I am committing to training a minimum of 12 android developers before the year runs out.

I will be fully involved in the training process and also leverage on the wealth of android developers in the community to help achieve this cause.The training will cover core components of android development and it’s targeted towards raising project ready android developers.

To ensure this continues, a participant will be required to extend this training (with supervision) to at least 1 individual, and this process continues (forming a tree). If interested, apply to the first version of Android Learning Tree and I will reach out to shortlisted candidates. Application is open until 15th of April 2018.