As the world starts becoming more hi-tech, the required skills companies are seeking for in employees is changing as well. For example way back in the day, being able to use a typewriter was considered a valuable skill, and that was also the same when you knew how to use word processing software.
Nowadays the ability to use software like Microsoft Office is almost a basic requirement, but unfortunately there are parts of the world where access to computers is limited, meaning that some people will never learn such “basic” skills, but that’s something that Google is hoping to change.
Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai recently announced that the company will be expanding one of its initiatives launched in April last year to train young Africans in digital skills, with the goal of being able to impart online skills to 10 million Africans over the course of the next five years in a bid to help make them more employable.
According to Pichai, Google is “committing to prepare another 10 million people for jobs of the future in the next five years.” This training will come in the form of in-person and online, and will also be conducted in multiple languages such as Swahili, Hausa and Zulu, and will also ensure that at least 40% of the people participating in the program are women.