Digify Africa Empowers 100 Nigerian Unemployed Graduates

Ugo Aliogo

A non-for-profit organisation Digify Africa, has marked the graduation of the 5th cohort of participants in its initiative known as DigifyPro supported by Facebook. The company celebrated the milestone of empowering 100 young unemployed graduates who have been trained with cutting edge digital skills gained at the eight weeks intensive Bootcamp and all of whom have been placed in new generation places of work following graduation.

The intensive eight-week Bootcamp, which was supported by Facebook, cuts across practical hands-on experience on digital marketing-from SEO to content marketing, live briefs workshops/presentations, vocational, workplace skills; agency processes, customer care, and client services.

Speaking during the graduation, the Programme Director, Nigeria, Florence Olumodimu, said the programme which sought to train 20 Nigerian graduates who are unemployed between the ages of 20 to 30 years for a cohort, has successfully recorded over 98 percent “of full time employment across various sectors in the economy for the beneficiaries, with most of them leading organisations digital team.”

Olumodimu said: “From the first #DigfyPro Cohort 1.0, It has been exciting journeys for us at Digify Africa in Nigeria, transforming everyday graduates to total career ready digital professionals with the right mind-set, right attitude, knowledge and practical hands on experiences through the well-structured system put in place designed to equip the next generation of digital talent from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th.

“The beneficiaries are then also tasked through our community give back initiative #GetDigitalNigeria to reach out to their communities, youths, associations and institutions that need digital skills training an endeavor that will continue to help contribute to closing the digital skills gap in Nigeria.

“These beneficiaries, come to us with little or no knowledge about the digital space, and within 8 weeks they are transformed to perform weekly live briefs set by agencies, where they got to conceptualise campaigns and show off their talents to prospective employers, after they are inducted into a three month work experience phase in order to apply all they have learnt in class with various organisations, and almost 90 percent of the time the beneficiaries have been retained and employed full time.”

She however called on organisations to seize this opportunity by requesting for participants from the programme as, “the programme offers job readiness skills to ensure that they were able to thrive in the workplace and offer value to their employers.”

A graduate of Dental Technology and one of the beneficiaries from 5th cohort, Rejoice Orjiene, said during the programme she has been able to redefine her career path and now less confused on what she has to do in the future.

Another graduate of Agriculture economics from University of Ibadan Iyanuoluwa Olawadara said “Before now I was not discipline in time management, because of the programme intensity, I have been able to master that skill and stay calm while under pressure. It has been an all-round experience for me.”

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