Blockchain In Higher Education & Job Market: Is Africa Prepared?
By M a k u b i on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE
Being in the blockchain space in the last few years, I have attended dozens of meetups and interacted with incredible personalities in the space. Sometimes back, I was at a meetup where one of the main areas of discussion was on how to encourage adoption. There were interesting suggestions and as I researched more, I found out different types of initiatives being undertaken.
In this article, I analyze the developments being made in the education sector to advance blockchain adoption.
Blockchain-Related Courses In Universities
Universities and institutions of higher learning are some of the best places to instill interest and learning about blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Already, this is picking up pace around the world.
Research done by Coinbase revealed that major universities around the world are starting to teach blockchain-related courses. 56% of the top 50 universities now offer blockchain and cryptocurrency-related course up from 42% in 2018.
The approach adopted by most universities is by starting to have a class or two around blockchain and cryptocurrencies. As interest grows, they are able to scale. Most of the interest is coming from computer science and economics students. Further, the coinbase report highlights some of the main areas of learning as:
· Anthropology of Money
· Introduction to blockchains, cryptocurrencies and smart contracts
· Securing computing systems
· Economics of money
· Cryptography
· Business and law
What makes it easy to integrate these concepts in the current curriculum is because the techniques used in blockchains such as cryptography, game theory and distributed systems are not necessarily new. With its multidisciplinary aspect in nature, it is easy to integrate learning in existing, economics, business law, computer science, management even humanities & philosophy. This is what makes blockchain-related learning interesting: it is an intersection of many fields and not necessarily computer sciences alone since it questions the philosophy behind governance, trust, etc.
Outside the USA, other universities in Europe and Asia have also launched blockchain related courses. The University of Nicosia in Cyprus was the first university globally to accept bitcoins for tuition back in 2013. It currently offers an introductory online course (MOOC) and also a Master’s Degree in digital currency. One of the tutors is Andreas Antonopoulos, a leading bitcoin and blockchain educator and author of 2 books- ‘Mastering Bitcoin’ and ‘Internet of Money’. I was curious and wanted to improve my technical understanding of bitcoin and blockchain, I took up the MOOC early this year. The 4-month online course took place from January to April. Every week, we were given reading materials with quizzes at the end of it. At the end of the week, there was a live session whereby the tutor answered questions from that week’s topic. There was a timed final exam at the end of the course.
I passed
here’s proof of work
I found it insightful and was able to get a certificate at the end of time. You can even verify the authenticity of the certificate on the bitcoin blockchain. how cool.
There are also other options with online courses from Coursera, edX, and Udemy. Most of them are free and provide foundational knowledge about blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
University-Industry Partnerships
The approach being adopted by some of the leading universities is a collaboration with industry experts and companies to assist in curriculum design and even offering lectures. For example, like Nicosia above partnering with Andreas Antonopoulos. Others have partnered with companies such as IBM and Ripple in order to offer the courses.
Ripple, the company behind XRP recently launched University Blockchain Research Initiative, UBRI a multi-stakeholder platform bringing together developers, researchers and graduate students. Partnering with different universities, it is aimed to fund and accelerate blockchain and cryptocurrency development in universities. The program is meant to be different from traditional corporate-sponsored research in that it partners with university departments and faculties that are already engaged with blockchain. This would allow UBRI to fund issues that are of most interest to them. The rationale is not to fund projects that are only of benefit to Ripple but build the blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem. UBRI already has 33 universities such as the University of California, Berkeley, University of Tokyo.
IBM also has partnership with Colombia University offering accelerator programs to build and scale blockchain innovation.
Africa Focus: Beyond The Formal Classroom
African universities could also adopt a similar approach. No major university in Africa has publicly stated that it is offering a blockchain-related course. Nonetheless, the level of awareness is growing and there are initiatives that are spearheading education and awareness through meetups, short courses and developer programs. Being a relatively new field, having industry experts working in the field would provide real-world context while allowing spread of knowledge that could further be improved upon. For example, Africa Blockchain Alliance has developer programs to enable learner become leading blockchain developers. It recently received a $10,000 grant from Ethereal Summit to enable more students take the course.
Bithub Africa, a leading blockchain accelerator in Nairobi, recently announced they had launched Melanin Academy, a 6-month blockchain engineering training and internship program. The program is being done in partnership with KubitX, a leading digital currency exchange. Bithub has in the past partnered with Strathmore University to offer Blockchain Essentials Training. DLBRT in Kenya has also been undertaking blockchain classes dubbed ‘blockchain for business’ and recently concluded its second cohort.
In Uganda, cryptosavannah says it offers technical training to developers as well as non-technical training for those interested in learning about blockchain technology. Another is horizon Africa a Mauritius-based Ethereum- blockchain network for Africa offers courses and platform for blockchain solutions. There are other similar initiatives offering trading lessons and developer introductory programs.
Also different countries have blockchain associations such as blockchain association of Kenya , Blockchain Association of Uganda, and so on. These are serving as important nexus for connecting industry developments to learning and engagement opportunities and spur progress.
In the next 2–3 years, more research should be done to show the impact of these programs in accelerating blockchain-related technical competency in order to gauge effectiveness and areas of improvement.
The Job Market Is Growing
LinkedIn released the ‘Emerging Jobs Report’ in December 2018 highlighting the jobs that have emerged in the last 5 years in the USA. A blockchain-related specialist is one of them with 33X growth over a period of one year. In 2016, there were 645 vacancies with the word ‘blockchain, or ‘bitcoin’ or ‘cryptocurrency’ on LinkedIn. In 2017, the number grew to 1800 and 2018 it was over 15,000.
Furthermore, the number of companies in the blockchain industry is growing and so are the employees. In a post published by @theblock, companies such as coinbase, Bitmain, and Huobi have more than 1000 employees while others such as Binance, Ripple and consensys have more than 500.
Even though most of these jobs are in North America, Europe, and Asia, more opportunities are expected to open up in other emerging markets as the industry grows. Data from Africa on education, number of jobs is not readily available but there are blockchain-based companies planning or already operating in Africa such as Paxful, Sun exchange, Luno, Bitland, Tracr, SureRemit among others. You can view the full list of over 100 companies operating in the Africa blockchain ecosystem compiled by the Africa Digital Assets Framework.
The growth of any new technology be it blockchain, artificial intelligence, internet of things, robotics or any other relies heavily on tinkering and experimentation. Most times, it is hard to get it right on the first go but as iterations are made, new synergies are realized and the technology is made to work based on people’s needs. Sometimes what is set out to be achieved is not what it ends up being used for but the learning curve provides immense knowledge pool that fosters a culture of innovation. With a lot of focus on quality of education and costs involved, universities of the future in areas of science and technology must invest heavily in research and innovation and help shape the future of Africa. In the meantime, progress being made through short courses, developer training, online courses are all commendable and is a good indicator of the progress in the industry. In case of any related program in Africa that you know of, get in touch, I'll add it to the post.
Thank you Morris for initial feedback.
