Africa: More than 60,000 African IT engineers trained, a record year for the Holberton group

With software engineering programs and solutions, Holberton provides innovative, high-quality university education around the world. These courses have attracted thousands of students in African territories, particularly in 2022. The latest figures for the group bear witness to this, which demonstrate the growing interest of Africans in IT professions and the need for training. on the continent, partly filled by Holberton’s solutions.

Indeed, in the first and second quarters of 2022, more than 60,000 students from 48 African countries enrolled in the programs offered by the company, including 22,000 students in Nigeria, more than 15,000 in Ethiopia, 10,000 in Kenya, 2,300 in Ghana, more than 1,300 in South Africa and 1,000 in Côte d’Ivoire.

In this dynamic, the group aims to train around 250,000 learners in Africa by the end of the year. For this, it wishes to develop its programs and solutions in French-speaking Africa in countries such as Madagascar, Morocco, Rwanda and Senegal.

“We did not expect such growth in Africa; it exceeds our expectations. Today for our group, it is the most dynamic continent and now the 1st continent in terms of activity! We will continue our awareness-raising work with African institutions and governments, which have understood the importance of training young people in the jobs of the future. We are delighted to be able to provide a viable and lasting solution to the growing demand for skilled labor in the region.” says Julien Barbier, founder and CEO of Holberton.

Taught in physics and in a digital version, the Holberton programs offer students university certifications at levels equivalent to those of Silicon Valley. These intensive training courses of 12 to 24 months cover all IT professions: software developers specialized in full-stack web development, front-end, back-end, machine learning, AR/VR or blockchain. The objective is to enable real immersion and rapid integration of students into the market, into local and international companies.

“The education system at Holberton School matches the needs of companies, all of which struggle to find talent in new technologies. Our students are so well trained that they have all found jobs right after graduation, and we now have Tunisian and international companies contacting us to employ more students. We have already expanded the school once, and we will probably expand it again soon”, attests Neila Benzina, CEO of Holberton School Tunisia.

The Holberton group has been present in Africa since 2019, through university campuses (Tunisia and South Africa) or through partners (educational establishments and training centers). The group’s primary ambitions on the continent were to train 500,000 computer engineers by 2030. But faced with the enthusiasm of young people and the awareness of many governments, Holberton and its partners now plan to enroll 3 to 5 million new students in Africa by 2030.

These figures demonstrate the African continent’s interest in training IT engineers, while the local infrastructure is still dilapidated and there are too few training courses. Today, it is estimated that there are only 690,000 software developers in Africa, 9 times less than in Europe, which has 6 million and 6 times less than the United States, which has 4.5 million. computer engineers.

According to the United Nations, by 2050, half of the world’s population will live in Africa, and the continent will then constitute the reserve of labor for the rest of the world. Training millions of African students in software engineering can completely change the dynamics and position of Africa on the global stage. The continent has the potential to generate massive economic growth and create many tech champions.