CNCF and Andela Announce Partnership to Train 20,000+ African Tech Professionals

The partnership will upskill African tech talent on Kubernetes basics; extend opportunity as global borderless workforces grow

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America -- The Cloud Native Computing Foundation® (CNCF®), which builds sustainable ecosystems for cloud native software, along with Linux Foundation Education, the training and certification arm of the Linux Foundation, has partnered with Andela, home to the world's largest private tech talent marketplace, to train 20,000 to 30,000 African technologists in cloud native basics to enable them to excel in jobs globally as cloud native development grows.

The training—done at no cost to the participants—will begin next year and unfold over two to three years. Participants will have the opportunity to train for the Kubernetes and Cloud Native associate (KCNA) certification, which demonstrates a user's foundational knowledge and skills in Kubernetes and the wider cloud native ecosystem, and the Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD), which certifies that users can design, build, configure, and expose cloud native applications for Kubernetes.

"This partnership showcases the global impact of CNCF's education programs. By standardizing cloud native knowledge, developers across the globe can confidently work toward certifications that will enable them to land developer positions both within their own countries and globally," said Chris Aniszczyk, CTO at the CNCF. "By partnering with Andela, which has a long history of training technologists in Africa, we see great opportunity in providing our training to communities that may otherwise not have access. Together we can create a win-win for companies that need workers and workers that need opportunities."

According to Google's Africa Developer Ecosystem Report 2021, the increased global demand for remote tech talent, which was accelerated by the pandemic, created more remote employment opportunities for African developers. Now, 38% of African software developers work for at least one company based outside of the continent.

"We are excited to partner with CNCF to extend training and, ultimately, enhance job opportunities for African workers. The continent is emerging as one of the most important markets in the world. It has the fastest-growing population of developers, and its young workforce will be key to solving the tech talent shortage," said Carrol Chang, Andela CEO. "Organizations are looking for talent with advanced skill sets like AI and cloud native and this particular skill set is a perfect addition to the Andela marketplace."

Training participants will take six to nine months to achieve the KCNA and CKAD certifications and will be selected from Andela's talent marketplace, which includes 150,000 technology professionals globally with a large percentage from Africa. Andela's talent marketplace in Africa spans 49 countries; including Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana. The company fosters an active community for marketplace participants and has worked with numerous companies, including Google, Meta, Microsoft, AWS, and Nvidia to train talent in technologies that offer vast workplace opportunities.

The need for cloud native developers continues to increase and a recent study by CNCF revealed that almost 55% of developers landed a new job as a result of training and certification courses. Almost 7 in 10 (67%) said it made them feel more engaged and fulfilled in their work. But 8 in 10 (81%) also said cost prevented them from completing certifications. 

"As a non-profit focused on growing open source and cultivating the IT talent needed to sustain it, partnerships – like this one with Andela – help us train and certify underrepresented groups, which is crucial to both our long-term success and amplify our impact," said Clyde Seepersad, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Linux Foundation Education.

Additional Resources

• CNCF Newsletter
• CNCF Twitter
• CNCF Website
• Learn About CNCF Membership
• Learn About the CNCF End User Community
• Linux Foundation Education website
• Learn about CNCF Training & Certification

About Cloud Native Computing Foundation

Cloud native computing empowers organizations to build and run scalable applications with an open source software stack in public, private, and hybrid clouds. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) hosts critical components of the global technology infrastructure, including Kubernetes, Prometheus, and Envoy. CNCF brings together the industry's top developers, end users, and vendors, and runs the largest open source developer conferences in the world. Supported by more than 800 members, including the world's largest cloud computing and software companies, as well as over 200 innovative startups, CNCF is part of the nonprofit Linux Foundation. For more information, please visit www.cncf.io.

About Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects are critical to the world's infrastructure, including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, ONAP, OpenChain, OpenSSF, PyTorch, RISC-V, SPDX, Zephyr, and more. The Linux Foundation focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

About Andela

Andela operates one of the world's largest private marketplaces of skilled digital talent. Its adaptive hiring model gives companies greater flexibility to quickly deploy qualified technical talent where it is most needed. The company's exclusive AI-powered platform enables clients to select individual roles or engage fully managed teams up to 66% faster. Andela's diverse talent ecosystem spans over 135 countries and is highly skilled in advanced technologies to support Application Development, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud & DevOps, Data Engineering, and more. The world's best brands trust Andela, including GitHub, Mastercard, and Mindshare. Discover Andela.

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see our trademark usage page. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Media Contact
Jessie Adams-Shore
The Linux Foundation
[email protected]

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SOURCE Cloud Native Computing Foundation