Skillsoft and iamtheCODE Announce Strategic Partnership to Enable One Million Young Women and Girls to Learn How to Code by 2030
BOSTON – March 8, 2022–Skillsoft (NYSE: SKIL), a global leader in corporate digital learning, today announced a strategic initiative with iamtheCODE, the first African-led global movement to mobilize government, private-sector, and philanthropic foundations to advance STEAMED education for women and girls in marginalized communities. The partnership is designed to support iamtheCODE’s mission to train 1 million women and girl coders worldwide by 2030 and is consistent with Skillsoft’s social impact mission to open doors to new possibilities through learning.
To start with, iamtheCODE will be launching its digital learning platform powered by Skillsoft’s Percipio in Africa’s largest refugee camps where tens of thousands of young girls and boys will have online and offline access to one of the world’s richest and most intuitive learning interfaces. The curriculum focuses on teaching four core, in-demand programming languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python), as well as skills development in wellbeing, design, innovation, leadership, and entrepreneurship in alignment with their 12 week mentoring program.
Concurrent with International Women’s Day 2022, this partnership is designed as a model of public and private cooperation that aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals to empower marginalized women and girls across the world. iamtheCODE’s mission is a direct implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to improve economic outcomes for women and girls and is also a focus of the World Economic Forum’s Reskilling Revolution.
“With Skillsoft as our partner and the use of Percipio, iamtheCODE is now well positioned to meet our ambitious goal of enabling 1 million young women and girls to code by 2030,” said iamtheCODE CEO and Senegalese born, Lady Mariéme Jamme. “Africa is home to 1.3 billion people and this initiative addresses our technology and skill development needs to achieve sustainable scale in the continent including an encouraging and intuitive interface, online and offline learning in several modalities, and a data driven approach to accurately measure the effectiveness of our programs. This is the platform where young girls can go and learn how to code and is a significant milestone for helping us reach our goal and more importantly helping the young girls achieve theirs. Africa’s need for coders and skilled programmers is growing rapidly. I believe this historic partnership will enable qualified coders who can finally support African growing industries. We need girls to be part of it.”
“Like iamtheCODE, Skillsoft shares a deep and lasting commitment to its social impact mission and providing access to learning and skilling opportunities for underserved populations,” said Jeff Tarr, CEO, Skillsoft. “Today marks an important step in our journey and we are delighted to provide skill-building content and access to Skillsoft’s Percipio platform to help young learners unleash their full potential. Lady Mariéme and the team at iamtheCODE are inspiring a generation to master skills they need to foster their development and gain employment, dignity and economic independence.”
“This is truly a historic and pioneering approach to addressing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,” said Lady Mariéme Jamme. “What Jeff and Skillsoft have done will change the lives of many people and give the opportunity they never had.”
About iamtheCODE
iamtheCODE is the first African-led global movement to mobilize governments, the private sector, philanthropic foundations, investors, and civil society to advance STEAMED (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics, Entrepreneurship, and Design) education. Its goal is to mobilize multi-stakeholders to invest in future technologies that can drive sustainable development for women, girls, and youth in marginalized communities across the world. A fundamental pillar of iamtheCODE’s work is the empowerment of women and girls worldwide, aligning with critical elements of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
iamtheCODE is one of the fervent UN Sustainable Development Goals Advocate. The organisation has been recognised by The United Nations High-Level Economic Empowerment, the World Economic Forum, UN Women, Unilever, UNHRC for bringing together multi-stakeholders including governments all over the world to ensure that by 2030, all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and useful learning outcomes. By 2030, our mission is to get 1 million women and girls coders.
Through iamtheCODE, youth from underprivileged backgrounds engage hands-on with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and build innovative solutions and learn how to code. This exercise not only helps them develop the skills they need to succeed in STEAMED (Science, technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Art and Design) fields, but it also enables their creativity and understanding of world pressing problems such as Climate change, Peace and Justice, and Gender Equality.
About Skillsoft
Skillsoft (NYSE: SKIL) is a global leader in corporate digital learning, focused on transforming today’s workforce for tomorrow’s economy. The Company provides enterprise learning solutions designed to prepare organizations for the future of work, overcome critical skill gaps, drive demonstrable behavior-change, and unlock the potential in their people. Skillsoft offers a comprehensive suite of premium, original, and authorized partner content, including one of the broadest and deepest libraries of leadership & business skills, technology & developer, and compliance curricula. With access to a broad spectrum of learning options (including video, audio, books, bootcamps, live events, and practice labs), organizations can meaningfully increase learner engagement and retention. Skillsoft’s offerings are delivered through Percipio, its award-winning, AI-driven, immersive learning platform purpose built to make learning easier, more accessible, and more effective. Learn more at www.skillsoft.com.
Media for IamtheCODE
Cate Doty: cate_d@iamthecode.org
Olivia Bruce: Londonteam@iamthecode.org
Media for Skillsoft
Cameron Martin
cameron.martin@skillsoft.com
Investors for Skillsoft
Eric Boyer
eric.boyer@skillsoft.com