Moringa School

Each year, 5M of African graduates of university are unemployed due to a dearth of relevant workplace skills. In Kenya, only 1% of computer science majors can secure positions in their field of study. The issue is compounded by universities and other educational training programs that deliver outdated, theoretical content that does not match the needs of companies. 

Moringa School fills this void by offering a comprehensive, technology-focused curriculum designed to equip post-secondary students with the necessary technical and workplace skills to pursue and secure meaningful employment throughout Africa. With locations in Kenya and Rwanda, the school has placed more than 85%+ of its graduates into leading companies.

Through experienced teachers and mentors, a blended learning model, and a market and outcomes-driven curriculum, Moringa School’s mission is to transform higher education throughout Africa and enable its graduates to be globally competitive with their peers.

According to the International Labour Organisation, half of the 10 million African university students who graduate each year are unemployed, mainly due to a dearth of relevant workplace skills. And by 2050, 1 in 4 people on Earth will be African. Even if more jobs are created, there won't be enough skilled workers to take them and if we accept the status quo, Africa will host the largest unemployed population in the world. In 2019, only 13% of secondary school graduates in Kenya received a spot in university, and on average, it takes 5 years for a university graduate to find a full-time formal job in Kenya. Specific to the tech industry that Moringa School currently focuses on,only 1% of computer science majors can secure positions in their field of study. The reason for these poor outcomes is that existing universities and other educational training programs 1) deliver outdated, theoretical content that doesn't match the skills needs of companies 2) have low-quality teachers and 3) have lecture-based teaching proven to be ineffective in skills development. This results in two unwanted consequences: unemployment among graduates and companies not finding the right talent, in turn, outsourcing their technology work outside of Africa. 

We offer a unique program to post-secondary students who want to maximize their chances of getting hired in one of the sector that recruit the most all over Africa: software engineering.

Moringa School Curriculum

Moringa Prep - A five-week computer science fundamentals course that covers concepts foundational to all high-level programming languages. 

Moringa Core - Offers various tracks (web, mobile) to students in a 15-week course that includes professional development. Content is based on employer demand for such skills. 

Post-Moringa School - Hiring partnerships with more than 50 technology companies, and ongoing post-graduation career support 

 Teaching Methodology

• Blended learning model (majority of content online) with advanced technical mentors answering students questions, simulating a real working environment

• Tested learning management system that tracks the progress of students and alerts technical mentors to which students need more attention

• Specialized learning - focus on3 Android or full-stack development

• Paired programming and project-based learning 

• Self-paced education, peer teaching 

• Support from other students + supportive and strong alumni base 

• Classroom culture centered around autonomy, ownership, reliability, and transparency through values of proactive participation and self-awareness 

Moringa School benefits to 18-35 year old secondary school leavers, university students or graduates, based in Nairobi (Kenya) and Kigali (Rwanda), who seek employment in software development and data science. Female students count for +/-40% in Kenya and 100% in Rwanda. We also aim to ensure accessibility to our courses for low-income and socially disadvantaged students (20% of our cohorts), through a special program called ‘Access’ (with the support or our partner: Mastercard Foundation) which provides them with a scholarship and necessary perks to be able to study. To date, Moringa has placed 85%+ of its graduates into full-time employment.

Internal processes are in place to make sure that we constantly listen to our students voice. The learning team closely work with technical mentors who supervises the students everyday, we also conduct regular surveys and engage the all-staff in students interviews during monthly assemblies. In addition, Moringa School hires its top students from every class into a Technical Mentor Fellowship program to train future Moringa students. Some current TMs were part of Moringa’s Access program for low income students. We also engage with employers to make sure we stay updated on their expectations and needs in terms of curriculum. 

Moringa School,as MIT Solve, observed that the future of work is heading towards an important number of jobs that require tech skills. In 2014, Moringa’s founder, Audrey Cheng, recognised that there were no tech skills institutions or the existing programs were not good enough to allow African economies to provide the well-equipped workforce they need to keep developing. We also know that tech jobs are decent and can constitute a promising career for youth, not only as employees but also as entrepreneurs. Moringa & MIT are aligned on the power of tech to tackle the good jobs & entrepreneurship challenge.

The blended learning model, which incorporate multiple teaching modals–(eLearning and traditional face-to-face learning) is completely new to the Sub-Saharan markets (except in South Africa). 

A blended learning approach ensures that the learner is engaged and driving his or her individual learning experience. This approach also helps cater to the individual needs of the learner: self-pacing for slow or quick learners reduces stress, increases satisfaction and information retention. Other benefits: E-learning allows more effective interactions between the learners and their instructors through the use of emails, discussion boards and chat room. Students have the ability to track their progress. This approach allows us to equip our students with both the technical and soft skills required in the professional world, collaboration being one of the most essential and naturally teached through the blended learning model. 

In our mission to improve the youth employment in Africa, one of our organization's promise is to also support the placement of our students into companies which is a service not provided by any other education institution in Africa. To do so, we have a team dedicated to identifying the needs of local companies in hiring junior software developers, and building relationships with those hiring partners to help our students in their quest for a meaningful job. 

Moringa School exists because of technology and is powered by it. Canvas, our learning management system, is the medium our teachers use to train and evaluate students. Students complete course content through Canvas while they are in the classroom. Dropout Detective helps track student progress while flagging at-risk students and alerts teachers if students are underperforming, allowing them to provide focused attention to those who need additional help. Furthermore, using a technology-based curriculum is integral to our success because it keeps the cost of education low and makes scaling possible. Using tools like zoom and google hangouts ensure that technical mentors are able to provide 1:1 support to students on video and voice calls. We use slack to communicate, share and unblock students with classes and GitHub to share and reviews student code throughout the program.

We use a number of tools to support students throughout the entire program

• Zoom-We use Zoom video conferencing app during daily group stand up, zoom breakout rooms for group discussions and also in individual 1:1 support and unblocking sessions. Link to zoom tutorial
• Google Meet-Google meet does a similar role as Zoom but we also use it in the case where we have differently-abled student, for example, a deaf student. Using google captions means that the Technical mentors and fellow student are able to communicate during the video call. Here is link google meet
• Dropout Detective-This helps manage our retention numbers, checking a number of variables, such as attendance, weekly score, number of logins by students to flag at risks student. This means we are able to support more focused support to struggling students and also enable Technical Mentor to send out an alert to other team members regarding a specific student. Here is a link to dropout detective
• Slack-We use slack as the primary medium of communication between students and Technical Mentors. Slack enables the creation of individuals channel where students in a specific class or group can have a discussion. We also have a channel to provide general support such as troubleshooting of other tools we use. Link to slack video
• Github-This is a version control tool that enables students to share code, technical mentors to review students code and give feedback on the same.It also enables the student to learn team collaboration in software development.Link to GitHub

The challenge of youth unemployment is three-fold: the quality of the supply, linking the supply to the demand side and cultivating more jobs and demand. Moringa School applies a different perspective to education and focuses on the quality of the supply and links the high-in-demand skills of graduates to job opportunities. Our theory of change starts with equipping young aspiring professionals with the practical skills they need to be market-ready, skills that unfortunately are not gained via traditional education.  While our programs are intensive when it comes to technical skills, we know employers need much more.  We equip our students to be curious, self-sufficient, accountable, and strategic through our soft skills modules and simulating a real-world environment during our training. Our impact won’t stop there.  By ensuring we are graduating high-quality graduates with market-aligned skills, we will be providing the opportunity for employers to source employees locally, thus unlocking the growth potential of tech and tech-reliant industries in otherwise labor-dominated economies.  By transforming the level of talent available in emerging markets, we will contribute to the ultimate transformation of  economies and livelihoods of all.

Through our previous SPOC program in partnership with secondary schools to expose young adolescents and their parents to tech careers, through our partnership with Mastercard Foundation and other organizations to serve students from informal settings, and through our continued work with a large pool of employers, Moringa has already developed a strong ecosystem of opportunities in Kenya and Rwanda.

Moringa aims to build an even more cohesive talent ecosystem in each of these countries and beyond between public sector regulators and private sector job creators through facilitating a sector skills council that drives the definition and measurement of relevant technical and soft skills. This ensures that all skills taught at Moringa and other training institutions remain relevant to the needs of employers, and are regulated by the government for accountability. Through the public-private sector partnerships and Moringa’s courses in multiple countries, thousands of students across Africa will be impacted by receiving higher quality education that increases their employability.

Moringa School has demonstrated considerable impact since inception, doubling the number of students trained per year and training over 2,000 students in Kenya and globally to date. In 12 months we will be directly serving around 2,800 students. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, both campuses shut down on March 15th and will remain closed until otherwise directed by the government. In order to serve our students and continue to fight youth unemployment, we have successfully shifted our in-person curriculum to a 100% remote experience, which lead us to accelerate our development through seeing new opportunities. Indeed, we know that despite the economic shrinkage, students are still interested in upskilling themselves and we are now also more accessible to students in other geographies because of this new online model. 

We expect to serve 25,000 students in five years and we aim to train 200,000+ knowledge workers through market-driven education in emerging markets by 2030.

Moringa is continuously working toward making our vision,a world in which anyone can create their future, a reality. We aim to achieve results in the following outcomes:
-  Quality income-earning opportunities/jobs. We measure this through our students placement rate which we want to maintain at a minimum of 85%+ in all campuses where we will operate.
-  Net earnings realized from income-earning activities, and/or household assets. Currently in Kenya our students who had a job before joining Moringa School see a 52% increase on average. 
-  Attainment of measurable, critical ‘deeper learning’ skills. Moringa technical mentors observe an 85 to 97% success rate in our student’s capacities to demonstrate these skills among different tests.

To scale, Moringa School will continue expanding its global partnerships. In the coming years, our primary focus will be scaling our curriculums through new campuses. Our Nairobi school will become a lab school where we do research and development, develop new courses, hone our teaching methods, and ensure our content remains relevant for employers. Besides opening campuses in major markets, we will build partnerships with universities, tech hubs and governments in Sub-Saharan Africa, who with support from our trained teachers, will reach thousands of students with the Moringa program.
Over the next 5 years, we plan to develop the following competencies (through internal or external hiring): M&E Management; Government Relations Management; Expansion Expertise and Management; Leadership and operational support (technical mentors, classroom managers, admissions managers, HR/finance/legal representatives) at all new locations; Global networking; Partnership building; Fundraising; E-learning expertise

As we transitioned to fully remote learning in less than one week, we faced many challenges. Our product and learning teams worked around the clock to ensure the integrity of our program is preserved in a virtual setting. We’ve brought further support to our students whose families are financially strained by offering discounts, additional scholarships, and housing for our most vulnerable students. We will continue to invest in the improvements required to deliver a premium online product, but, as many companies globally are, we are experiencing financial strain as our main barrier to a bigger impact.

Typically, we need support on more scholarships to be able to involve more students, we also need technical assistance to roll-out flexible financing options, R&D assistance to continue improving existing products and building new products to ensure we can deliver on our brand promise and compete against other players that are also moving to online models, etc. 

The impact of COVID on Moringa School has actually been highly beneficial as we discovered that our school is still very attractive to students even if fully online. We also managed to enroll students from countries outside of our operating countries and we are working on developing our offer to address more needs like those of part-time students/young professional students. We're working on integrating those new and very encouraging findings into our pitch for series A round, and many investors have already manifested interest in Moringa School. We're also actively developing our offer to students and for corporate trainings as our first mandates last year with big telco companies in Kenya confirmed that there's a need for tech upskilling and that Moringa School is very well positioned to respond to it. 

Another initiative to overcome these barriers is to create more opportunities for partnerships and grants: by developing an internal capacity to look for opportunities with funders and other partners all around the world whose strategy is aligned with ours, we're increasing our chances to receive the financial support we need to scale in other countries. 

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109 full-time staff + 6 consultants work at Moringa School in Kenya and in Rwanda

Moringa is powered by a leadership team with extensive experience and wide networks in their areas of direction. The CEO of Moringa is effective at forming partnerships with funders and experts in the tech industry, which has so far resulted in international recognition including Forbes 30 Under 30, the Cartier Women’s Initiative Award, Financial Times, IFC, and support from the World Bank and UNESCO. The Director of Growth and Infrastructure Meredith Karazin has 15+ years of experience in scaling up education organizations, our product team is made up of industry and learning design experts, and our delivery team is made of up team members who have also scaled organizations previously.  

Our values gather a group of bold, humble, accountable and collaborative people who are accustomed to working in a highly agile environment. The success of our schools is the result of our efforts to set up a strong strategy, an outstanding product and delivery team, and the capacity to adapt and respond quickly to any obstacle we face. 

Moringa’s team is composed of 80% Kenyans in our Nairobi campus and 100% Rwandans in our Kigali campus, which is representative of the populations we serve. In addition, Moringa School hires its top students from every class into a Technical Mentor Fellowship program to train future Moringa students. 

The Mastercard Foundation-Moringa Partnerships: Young Africa Works

With 4.5 years of proven impact in helping youth secure employment in the technology sector, Moringa is now at a critical juncture to rapidly grow and train 200,000 more knowledge workers by 2030. To accomplish these ambitious goals Moringa needs to expand further to an underserved low-income market which is aligned with Mastercard Foundation’s aim for low-income young people across Africa to secure dignified and fulfilling employment. In addition, Moringa seeks support to ensure quality and high-impact on its students, as well as to design its model for scale and answer critical questions to shape its scale-up strategy.

In short, the Moringa and Mastercard Foundation’s partnership allows Moringa School to:

1) Strengthen the scholarship program, providing a skills-to-employment education for more low-income students, serving a total of 1,561 low-income students over the next three years, 20% of total students.

2) Invest in research and program development, through technical assistance to Moringa School, to a have greater positive impact on low-income students, as well as be able to scale to more students, both low-income and self-sponsored, to reach almost 8,000 students over the next three years.

Moringa School has 3 main business lines: direct tuition (self-sponsored students), Access program (sponsored by Mastercard Foundation to support low-income students) and B2B (tech upskilling programs for corporate trainings). 

Moringa School equips young people with tech skills that are highly in demand in the countries where we operate and currently poorly served by existing educational institutions. With our blended learning model we bring a better approach to teach the tech skills, we also equip our students with the soft skills expected by employers and we allow youth to find decent and long-term employment. With a 85%+ placement rate maintained through the years, Moringa School has confirmed its model is needed for both students and employers in Africa. We welcome 20% of low-income students through our Access program to support reducing the inequalities in the development of the economy and we have plans to update the self-sponsored payment model to make Moringa School even more accessible to all. 

Our path to financial sustainability is top of mind for Moringa at this stage of growth. This includes equity capital to invest in growth, direct sales (B2B and B2C), and sustainable grant funding through several multi-year committed partnerships. We aim to diversify the product offerings as well as growing our curriculum with new full-time products each year. In 2019, we successfully launched a new course and created a successful curriculum for professionals who need upskilling/reskilling. We are preparing to raise our series A funding as we plan to open three more campuses and develop three additional courses by 2023:
- Kenya Campus will break even in 2021,company will break even in 2023, and new campus time to break even is estimated between six months to a year
- Overall revenue growth of at least 50% year on year
- Maintenance of 85%+ job placement for B2C indefinitely, though we will expand opportunities for graduates (entrepreneurship, consulting, freelance, remote, etc.)
- Gross margin will increase due to increased efficiencies and decreased space costs

We are investigating further avenues of financial inclusion to make our products more accessible to all and believe this will be a key lever in our ability to scale across the continent. The increasing amount invested in education, in the markets we target, as well as the growth of the tech ecosystem in Africa (the world’s fastest growing continent for software developers according to a recent GitHub report) encourages us in our vision and mission as the need for talent continues to grow.

As we expand across throughout Africa, we are seeking a better understanding of how to most effectively scale our work. We want to know the best teaching methods and strategies. Solve has an extensive network, and we hope to connect with organizations doing similar work to learn about their approaches. We also hope that Solve membership will increase our exposure, helping us make connections with leading philanthropists and investors. We are eager to connect with likeminded funders who can not only support us financially, but help us strengthen our model and infrastructure.

In our expansion plan, we need financial support or technical assistance with the following:

• Scholarship support

• Other student financing avenues (loans, ISAs, etc.)  

• Development of financial instruments aimed at supporting vulnerable populations 

• International expansion 

• Product development

We hope to work closely with MIT. MIT has extensively researched learning psychology, and your experts would help us better our teaching methodology. To scale successfully, we need to create a top-notch curriculum that facilitates quality learning, and still does so cheaply. Guidance from MIT and Google would be particularly beneficial as we develop new curriculums.