Village2nation Academy

An overwhelming majority of learning content in traditional e-learning platforms remain culturally irrelevant for African learners. Additionally, self paced learning has been found to have a measly 6 to 7% in completion rates. The biggest challenge however, is the lack of accessibility of these platforms to users with visual and hearing impairment.

Our solution provides locally-relevant digital skills using cohort-based learning that combines both live and prerecorded classes, on a platform that is accessible. This model of learning has seen our completion rates reach between 70 to 80% with our learners feeling engaged and supported through the process as the content it's fully relevant, practical and ready to implement.

If this solution is scaled globally, the widening gap between education and industry will be significantly reduced as young people will have the skills to engage with the digital economy without any limitation pertaining location or disability status.

There are approximately 280 million youth in Africa between the age of 15-35 that are either unemployed or underemployed. The digital economy in Africa is set to reach a whooping $180 billion by 2025. The problem is, there is a huge gap between education and industry which limits the ability of these youth to actively participate in the growing digital economy. 

Furthermore, with school enrollment of people with disability at a measly 5-10%, there is an urgent need to ensure this demographic of people is not condemned to a life without skills that can lead to sustainable employment. 

The digital economy presents an opportunity for people from all walks of life,  to earn a sustainable living from wherever they are as long as they have access to an Internet device and the right skill set. 

However, there exists a limited number of opportunities available for African youth to learn digital skills that are expressly relevant to their specific contexts and in a manner that is accessible to people with visual and hearing disabilities. In essence, this has locked out a significant number of high-potential youth from making a sustainable livable wage from the opportunities presented by the digital economy.

Village2nation Academy is a learning platform that combines both live and pre-recorded classes presented in a way that is accessible to learners with visual and hearing disability.

We use local instructors with contextual experience of the high-value skills they teach, and who can present it in a way that is practical and ready to implement within their specific countries. All our instructors have to take a course on creating inclusive classes. 

We also use cohort-based learning which has been known to create elements of community and peer-to-peer support that has enabled us to achieve a 70 to 80% completion rates compared to the 6 to 7% found in traditional self paced learning. 

We have narrowed down on classes that are heavily biased towards the digital economy and that provide our learners with the ability to become competitive in the world of work or earn a living from the digital economy.

Last year we have taught at least 3000 students primarily from Kenya, and we are hoping to scale this solution across the continent. 

Our target population is Africans between the age of 16 and 40, with at least a high school education and access to a mobile Internet device. We are also targeting those with mobility hearing and visual challenges that meet this criteria. The mindset that our target group has is that of a deep desire to learn and grow their careers and/or their ability to create a sustainable living wage within the Fourth Industrial Revolution. 

They are currently underserved by the lack of up-skilling opportunities that they can immediately apply and implement within their contexts. Most of the content found online are created by and for non-Africans; thereby leaving limited applicability of the lessons therein. For our users with disability, the lack of logistical access to learning opportunities has held them back from meaningfully participating in the digital economy. 

To better understand our users needs, we consistently hold user interviews and focus groups to help us best address their needs as they emerge. We also observed a lot how the interact with our platform and our instructors to fully understand how to make the necessary changes. 

We know that our solution addresses their needs every time they're able to access new employment opportunities as a result of the classes they have taken on our platform, are they are able to earn an income from the digital economy because of the skills we have provided them with. We are hoping to increase our portfolio of classes indirect response to the request they have made. 

The problem we are addressing is a lack of digital inclusion which in essence includes limited access to jobs, training and opportunities. Our solution addresses this by reducing the skills gap that locks Africans out of these opportunities.

Both the problem and the solution is aligned to this MIT Solve Digital Inclusion Challenge as it is focused on building an inclusive digital economy (through relevant up-skilling) that affords everyone the opportunity to lead a productive and dignified life.

We have selected 'pilot' because while we have been able to train 3000 people over the last year (using just Zoom), our new e-learning platform it's just a few weeks old. We are currently testing it with 4 instructors and approximately 100 learners (with and without disability) majority of them being in Kenya while a few of them being from neighboring countries like Uganda and Seychelles. 

The information we are gathering is what will help us develop our app that should be even more seamless to use while still being accessible for our learners with visual and hearing disability. 

I want aim is to be able to on board at least 50 instructors and 5000 learners over the next 8 months, from at least three African countries. 

What makes Village2nation innovative is the level of engagement, community support that we bring to online learning, thereby enabling our learners meet the outcomes and impact they were hoping to achieve as a result of their learning. Additionally, the approach we have taken to use home-grown instructors has ensured that all our content is relevant, practical and readily implementable by our learners in their various locations.

Most of all, our obvious commitment to accessibility has allowed us to provide a service that is generally unavailable for users with hearing and visual impairment. We consider this highly innovative.

While we have seen an increase in learning providers deploying cohort based learning, we expect our solution will encourage an uptick in more providers becoming intentional in providing accessible learning; not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it's also good for business (which provides an incentive for adoption). 

We need more providers that provide more than just an online course; we hope to encourage them to do it better and to include everyone while at it. 

Current: 3000

In one year: 10,000-15,000

In 5 years: 300,000-500,000

Our main impact metrics will be as follows:

1. No of students who join versus those who complete the classes/training month on month.

2. The number of students who transition into work or into active engagement with the digital economic as a direct result of our classes. 

We will also be measuring the level of engagement we have in our socials, our mailing list and our channels. 

Fulltime: 3

Part-time: 2 

Contractor: 1