LEARNERS from disadvantaged backgrounds in Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa are to benefit from a free skills development and job training programme rolled out by a global cloud computing company.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with AWS re/Start to build essential AWS Cloud skills that enable South Africans to take up cloud careers in the growing cloud computing job market,” said Johan Ceronio, Director at Praesignis.

Mclean Ncube, another AWS re/Start learner in South Africa, said, “This will open opportunities with an internationally recognised accreditation, allowing me to work across different countries and upskill myself.”

The three AWS re/Start cohorts in Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa will graduate in January 2021.

Source: Cajnewsafrica.com

Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Africa had been faced with the devastating effects of other health disasters such as Ebola, cholera and HIV/AIDS, and these had fuelled research on the continent and helped to create awareness on primary healthcare and the spread of viruses and diseases.

Furthermore, the advent of the pandemic called on epidemiologists, virologists, nutritional scientists and other public health practitioners to play an active role in research and providing science-driven solutions to the global pandemic.

The African region, despite having the youngest population in the world, contributes only 198 researchers per million people.

Source: University World News

A non-government organisation, Teach For Nigeria has hosted its first ever pitch event at the Gusau Institute, Kaduna.

The contest was hosted as part of the organisation’s Incubation Hub Programme, earlier launched in October 2020 to support its alumni members in the social innovation space with resources needed to drive their initiatives on promoting access to education for children in low-income communities.

Source: Guardian.ng

Researchers and scholars want publishers to increase the volume of available free-access journals to boost research and knowledge production during the COVID-19 pandemic. This, they say, will particularly benefit poor institutions and budding scientists from low-income countries.

Source: Educators World News

Having more women in the workplace generally benefits growth and prosperity in a nation. According to a 2019 International Labour Office report, the global gap in labour participation rates between women and men was 27% in 2018. According to the 2018 World Bank survey, only 27.8% of working women were employed in permanent, full-time positions and 27.6% as full-time production workers.

Apart from the political arena where we have seen significant gains in the participation of Ethiopian women, wider participation in employment, as well as economic activities, is still far from satisfactory, despite some government initiatives.

Source: University World News

It may not be out of place to say that expectations of stakeholders in the educational sector were not met in the outgone year as most of the problems confronting the sector remained unsolved.

The nation’s educational system is still bogged down by poor funding, industrial crises, brain-drain, poor remuneration, decayed infrastructure, and dearth of competent teachers. Unfortunately, these challenges run through all the three tiers of education – primary, secondary and tertiary.

Source: Guardian.ng

ANUOLUWAPELUMI Dawodu is headed for Queen’s College, Yaba when school resumes and it is a big deal to her family and school.

Getting admitted into the 94-year- old school on merit is no mean feat considering it is one of the most sought-after of the 104 Federal Unity Colleges across the county.

Source: Worldnews.org