Lagos Partners Google to Empower 50,000 Students

The Lagos State government has announced collaboration with Google to provide digital skills training for 50,000 students of Lagos State tertiary institutions.

Announcing the pact in his office, the special adviser on education, Mr Obafela Bank-Olemoh, said the three-month training would be open to students of the Lagos State University (LASU), Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH), Ikorodu; Michael Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCPED), Epe; Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED), Ijanikin; and the Lagos State College of Health Sciences, and other interested members of the public.

We are trying to position our students to function in the 21st Century and digital skills are important to us. The number of students we will be training is 50,000. We are confident that if we give Lagosians skills to complete, they will do wonderful things. Students that do very well in the training would be selected as Google trainers and would help the communication company to implement future training programmes, he said.

Nigeria Country Manager for Google, Mrs Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor said the training is coming at the right time given the potential of the Internet to generate income. “Everyone needs digital skills. It is really important that tertiary institutions incorporate digital training into their curriculum. A recent McKenzie(www.mckinsey.com)  report states that from 2013 to 2020, the Internet would contribute 300billion dollars to the GDP.  This training will span three months leveraging on the ICT facilities in the various institutions,” she said.

Ehimuan-Chiazor added that the modules will focus on gaining the basic digital skills, how to run a business online, social media, online marketing, and the like.

Free registration is open for the training on a designated website, www.digifyafrica.com .