Mali’s Kabakoo Academies, has received funding from video conferencing platform Zoom to democratize access to tech education for the African youths and has unveiled a no-code “FullStack” training for a batch of twenty learners at its Bamako campus in partnership with Europe’s Contournement.
Kabakoo was among the six recipients who received a grant each to support their work to address the education challenges of today through initiatives including diversifying the teaching profession, entrepreneurial job training, assisting aspiring youth in conflict-affected areas to join the digital economy, and providing access to science-based approaches to reading education.
Other recipients were Open Up Resources, Re:Coded, and STEM From Dance, Cambiar Education, and Center for Black Educator Development. They will also receive Zoom technology, volunteer support, and funding to help them scale. The total amount of grant funding is $1 million from Zoom Cares, Zoom’s philanthropic organization.
“We recognize the resilience and tenacity of these six organizations,” said Roxana Shirkhoda, Head of Social Impact at Zoom. “They turned an unprecedented challenge into an opportunity, scaling their reach and deepening their impact via video communications. We are thrilled that for several of these organizations, Zoom Cares will be their first corporate funding partner. We look forward to supporting all six groups and their critical education efforts around the world.”
Education continues to be deeply impacted by the pandemic, and Zoom is invested in supporting students and educators in the long-term. In addition to providing free Zoom access to more than 125,000 K-12 schools as defined by approved domains, Zoom Cares has also provided grant funding to organizations including Education Superhighway, Profound Gentleman, and Teach for All. Learn more about Zoom Cares here.
“We are building the first pan-African learning platform for digital and small-scale manufacturing by leveraging cutting-edge tech and community-embedded knowledge,” said Yanick Kemayou, Founder of Kabakoo Academies. “The Zoom EdInnovation Award is a tremendous opportunity to scale up our impact and upgrade the Kabakoo Learning Experience. Zoom support will be key to improve both our video-based learning platform and the deployment of our training offerings to young Africans.”
Kabakoo bets on no-code skills to supercharge its learners’ employability and their local entrepreneurship projects. Coached by word-class mentors, the learners will acquire full proficiency in no-code tools to create websites, mobile apps, automation and data management projects. Co-designed with Contournement, the training aims at mastering key tools such as Zapier, Airtable, Adalo, Glide or Dorick, which will help learners to rapidly develop ambitious tech products (without having to code) to meet the needs of local communities and markets in the Sahel.
The Kabakoo engagement in the no-code segment is catalyzed by strong partnerships with, among others, the current leading no-code app Notion, which supports Kabakoo’s activities through its impact program.
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Kabakoo aiming to reaffirm its leading role in the pan-African EdTech space was recently named as the “School of the Future” by the World Economic Forum before the Zoom EdInnovation Award on March 1st, 2021, which recognizes “the boldest and brightest solutions supporting underserved students”.
