Google Announces Scholarship Program As Part Of Initiative To Train 100 000 African Developers

This morning, Google announced a new African Certification Scholarship programme aimed at helping developers become certified on Google’s Android, Web, and Cloud technologies.

For this year, Google is offering 30 000 scholarships and 1 000 grants for their Associate Android Developer, Mobile Web Specialist and Associate Cloud Engineer certifications.

The scholarship program will be facilitated through Google’s partners Pluralsight and Andela who offer what Google is terming as “intensive learning curriculum designed to prepare motivated learners for entry-level and intermediate roles as software developers.”

“Are these certifications valuable?”

There are always a lot of arguments regarding online courses and just how valuable they are but Google’s blog post also tries to vouch for their certifications:

Although Google’s developer certifications are relatively new, we have already seen evidence that becoming certified can make a meaningful difference to developers and employers. Adaobi Frank – a graduate of the Associate Android Developer certification – got a better job that paid ten times more than her previous salary after completing her certification. Her interview was expedited as her employer was convinced that she was great for the role after she mentioned that she was certified. Now, she’s got a job that helps provide for her family – see her video here. Through our efforts this year, we want to help many more developers like Ada and support the growth of startups and technology companies throughout Africa.