SAP Aims to Bring Digital Literacy to More Than 20,000 Youth with Africa Code Week

WALLDORF, Germany, Oct. 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced the start of Africa Code Week, a continent-wide initiative to spread digital literacy and simplify access to coding education for young people. From October 1-10, 2015, online sessions and hundreds of free coding workshops will be organized for children and youth aged 8 to 24 across 17 countries: Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Tunisia and Uganda.

"Digital literacy has the power to put millions of young Africans on the path to successful careers," said Rachid Belmokhtar, the Minister of Education and Vocational Training of the Kingdom of Morocco. "Trained, tech-savvy graduates are needed to improve Africa's position in the globally competitive knowledge economy. Everyone — from governments and educational institutions all the way to NGOs and corporations — has a role to play to spread digital literacy across Africa."

Africa Code Week is part of SAP's effort to bridge this digital skills gap and drive sustainable growth in Africa. The company already invests in the SAP® Skills for Africa program, which provides additional business and IT skills to recent university graduates. Africa Code Week reinforces that commitment to graduates while extending it to primary and secondary students, creating a full cycle of skills support for young people in Africa.

Founded and orchestrated by SAP in partnership with Simplon.co, AMPION, the Galway Education Centre, the Cape Town Science Centre and the King Baudouin Foundation, Africa Code Week is supported by a fast-growing network of local governments, international and local educational organizations, NGOs and software companies across the continent. Google Inc. also joined Africa Code Week as a strategic partner to support local organizers of computer science and coding activities all over Africa.

Africa has the fastest growing digital consumer market and the largest working-age population in the world. The World Economic Forum* expects the population of Africa to double to 1 billion by 2050, exceeding that of China and India. The potential problems triggered by this boom in working-age youth is compounded by a lack of educational opportunities, technology training in particular. At the same time, African companies are scrambling to fill positions with employees who possess the right digital skills. Only one percent of African children leave school with basic coding skills.

In preparation for Africa Code Week, SAP has deployed its own IT experts as volunteers to train adults, parents, teachers and government staff, giving them the tools they need to bring coding knowledge to children and youth. To-date, they have already trained 1,500 educators.

Workshops for the 8-11 and 12-17 age groups are based on Scratch, the famous system developed by the MIT Media Lab to simplify the face of coding for the young generation. Provided free of charge, Scratch makes coding accessible to anyone and is being used by millions of kids and teens around the world to create and share interactive stories, animations and games. Via the openSAP platform, SAP also offers free massive open online courses (MOOCs) for those who cannot attend Africa Code Week events or who want to take their Scratch programming experience to the next level. Local organizers will be able to setup computer science clubs in schools and introduce students aged 9-14 to computer science using the free and easy-to-use Google CS First enrichment materials.

Students aged 18-24 will learn how to leverage Web technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript, as well as Meteor.js. to create their own WhatsApp clone, a simple messaging app that runs on mobile devices. In parallel, AMPION Africa Code Week buses will tour Rwanda and the Western Cape in South Africa to allow children in rural areas to join the coding revolution. 

"In the next 10 years, today's youth will determine whether businesses win or lose the game," said Franck Cohen, president, Europe, Middle East and Africa, SAP. "These young Africans are pushing businesses to innovate — to do things simpler, faster, smarter and more sustainably, in ways that will ultimately change the world. If we equip young people with the best technology, give them skills that make them relevant to the job market and empower them to be bold, we'll watch the next generation do incredible things."

SAP invites other companies and nonprofit organizations to help place African youth on the path to successful digital careers by joining the growing team of Africa Code Week partners.

To learn more, visit the Africa Code Week website. For more information, visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

*http://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-africa-2015

About SAPAs market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 293,500 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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