Why AltSchool?

Hello dear reader, I am Mayowa Ojo but you can call me The CloudFairy🌩️🧚‍♀️. I took a little break from my Nodejs tutorials to write this article because I am afraid applications may be closing soon and as a fairy, I want to help you make magic!

I have gotten a lot of questions and requests about AltSchool Africa and even though I previously wrote an article about my journey there, a lot of people still have questions about the school itself. To answer your questions in a detailed manner, refer to the following subheading.

What is AltSchool?

AltSchool is an online school or platform for individuals looking to gain technical skills and kickstart a career in Tech, this means that all learning activities are done virtually. AltSchool Africa takes a non-traditional approach to learning by teaching courses directly connected with the selected track. They are focused on helping African students begin or continue their journey in Tech.

Side note: I think the AltSchool name, meaning “Alternative School” is the general name and a vision board for the innovative founders who plan to scale worldwide in the nearest future. AltSchool Africa can then be said that it’s part of AltSchool meant for African students! Amazing, right?

AltSchool provides an avenue for you to grow your skills in the Tech and IT world without having to spend about 4 years as is the way with traditional universities. It differs for various people, it could be a year of gaining marketable skills before or after your university education, could be a year of gaining additional experience for you while still in uni, and it could be you wanting to know more, just because you are curious about having an insight into IT, regardless of age, gender or nationality.

Schools and Tracks

AltSchool Africa has three different schools with different tracks in them. They are listed below:

• School of Software Engineering; Backend Engineering Track, Cloud Engineering Track, Frontend Engineering Track.
• School of Product; Product Design, Product Management, Product Marketing
• School of Data: Data Analysis, Data Engineering, Data Science.

If you have questions about any other course you would like to take and would need to make enquiries, please reach out to AltSchool Africa on the school website here or any of their social media platforms.

School Duration

The whole programme is about a year/12 months long. For the 12 months, there are 4 learning semesters and a semester lasts for 3 months each. I attended the School of Engineering so I can mostly only provide clearer information about it.

All SOE students are required to learn the basics of website development in the first semester by taking courses in HTML(Hyper Text Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) and JS (Java Script). This idea is a very nice approach because it helps students who are completely new to programming, to see how the internet works, and how web applications which they will be interacting with later, are created. It would also help students who probably started their journey in tech through self-learning, to jog back their memories and adapt to the system.

For the other schools, I believe a similar approach would be taken too. If you do not think I provided enough information regarding your desired school, you can make enquiries from the students or the alumni for more details or message AltSchool Africa on the school website or any of their social media platforms.

In continuation, after the first semester, the students are graded and if they pass, they will be required to make their choice of tracks and after that, classes would proceed for the second semester. The second semester would be for an introduction into your desired tracks, hands-on assignments and tasks would be given, and at the end of the second semester, there would be an exam to evaluate the students’ performance.

For the third semester, there would be more hands-on projects for the students, projects that would require the students to research better and even try out examples as they are used in the real world.

The fourth semester is then used for preparing the students for applying for jobs, working at companies, and becoming marketable (e.g. building products, interview prep, or writing a marketable CV).

Learning Process

The school prides itself on being able to provide flexible learning hours for its students. Classes are pre-recorded by the tutors and uploaded to the LMS (Learning Management System) at the beginning of each week. This gives the students enough time to study, practice, and take notes of things they do not understand.

Live classes are held on Wednesday and Saturday evenings where the tutors explain the materials for the week and illustrate live. Also, the students get to ask the tutors about anything they do not understand or share their knowledge with classmates.

Extracurricular activities

AltSchool offers extracurricular activities for the students right from their entrance; events like Town Halls (where general information is communicated orally, apart from the Slack channel), Fun Fridays (where guests are sometimes invited to share their experiences, educate students or even students are called to talk and interact), and a few others that may have recently been added to the curriculum.

Also, some interesting courses are introduced to the students, these include courses on soft skills, agile methodologies, CV and interview prep and the like.

Tuition Fees

Applicants to AltSchool Africa are required to pay a sum of #15,000 to take the entrance examination first, after which, if such applicant passes, they would be admitted to the school. The school fee is $290 (The rate of exchange here is #700 per dollar). If you would like to pay in naira (for Nigerians), that would be a total of #203,000 (Two hundred and three thousand).

AltSchool found a way to ease payments by offering different payment options.

Full payment — $290 or #203,000

You can pay quarterly — $80 or #56,000

Or monthly — $30 or #21,000

Certificate

At the end of the program, each student is awarded a certificate for a diploma in whatever course they study. AltSchool has received verification of exemption from the Bureau of Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE), California, USA which allows them to issue diploma certifications for the courses offered. All graduates of AltSchool Africa who fulfil all learning requirements upon completion of their chosen learning track will be awarded a diploma duly recognised by the state of California!

My piece of advice

I believe in personal development so much and I believe it has played an integral part in my life till this moment, I also think voicing out is important, if you are learning and you somehow do not seem to understand, you need to ask for help, make good use of your session there. AltSchool has provided you with a platform and a community, not only to make meaningful friendships but to also have their backing. Besides, try to teach others as you are learning too, it helps to retain information.

Network with your classmates as much as you can and also be careful to be moderate with that (nobody likes stalkers or people who always want to be everywhere every time and end up being pests).

If you do not mind being known, put yourself out there and let yourself be recognised for great opportunities. Be a problem solver, look around you and proffer solutions that will help you to be indispensable or at least recognised for your skills.

All I mean and am trying to say is that AltSchool is meeting you right in the middle by helping you gain new skills and a beautiful community, the best thing you can do is to walk down there by the middle to them, holding hands together and conquering the world with your knowledge.

Conclusion

I conclude thus; AltSchool is a great platform for beginners in Tech and they provide that platform that you need for you to get started or serious. Working in groups or working on projects with deadlines enhances your ability to study better and this, in turn, gives you more confidence and experience to get into the career world. I believe AltSchool is a great launch pad for world talent, I would recommend AltSchool to Tech newbies.

Great thanks to Jerry Uke for assisting with some details I missed.

Thank you for reading through too. If you have questions, comments or corrections, please reach out or make comments here so I can do the necessary corrections in order for other readers to get more information.

Please note that I am not a tutor or founder at AltSchool or even in any way paid to advertise for the school. I am just an alumna sharing her story and also helping to answer your questions about AltSchool so if you have any questions, I believe reaching out to the AltSchool team or a student in your desired track would help you get faster and more up-to-date answers.

You can reach out to me on LinkedIn here or here on Twitter if you are not too nerdy..lol bye.

Kindly clap and follow me for more updates and articles, thank you again, dear reader!

The CloudFairy🌩️🧚‍♀️.