Redefining Outbox Edu Amid the COVID-19 outbreak
Uganda joined the rest of the world as schools were closed in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19. On Monday 23rd March 2020, we made the decision to take all our initiatives under @OutboxEDU online. The OutboxEdu programme is an initiative focused on equipping young people with industry relevant digital skills through accelerated learning. These range from software development skills, digital marketing to data analysis. Through this programme we seek to bridge the gap between the traditional educational system and what the industry requires so as to enable our young people become “ready to work”.
Outbox EDU is focused on providing decent jobs for youth through equipping them with digital skills and facilitation of internship and job placements through its hiring partners.
Taking our Classes online
Unlike traditional schools that had to completely close down operations and possibly send the students home with holiday work, we had to quickly find the best way to continue the program despite the fact students could not meet with facilitators physically. By using tools such as teachable and Zoom we were able to achieve this. Currently we have following classes running remotely under OutboxEdu:
The Prep class; a 5 week boot camp through which we train individuals with limited or no experience in software development or more experienced developers seeking to sharpen their front end development skills.
CoRe; a 15 week full time course consisting of two pathways; full-stack web or mobile development. Students who choose fullstack web will learn Python, Javascript and Django whereas those who opt for mobile development will learn Java, Javascript and Android.
The Digital Skills boot camp: Female Founders Edition; this boot camp equips women running businesses with the skills and tools that they can leverage to enable their businesses to grow. The businesses range from fashion and cosmetics, tourism, entertainment, Culinary, Florists, events planning to mention but a few.
Our students/participants managed to put their best foot forward and continued to attend classes continuously with the same passion and drive. However, there were a few recurring issues such as; having to adapt to their new environment filled with distractions, technical issues that include the occasional load shedding and managing time effectively. Having to deal with these challenges is one thing but remembering to stay motivated has been the greatest challenge.
Our facilitators schedule calls with students who have difficulty adjusting to their new environment and they also use the opportunity to get feedback on the lessons. Scheduling these 1 on 1 sessions helps the facilitators to hear from the learners on an individual basis. Learners are more open to share the different challenges they face like insufficient data, being engaged in a lot of house work etc.
Although this has been a learning curve for both students and Outbox as a whole, it has enabled us to put into action what we constantly tell our students to do, which is to rethink, refine and renew.
Sign up for our Prep V class here
Written by Justine Nansubuga Andrea
