Around 1 019 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)-based educational institutions have been enrolled in the Oracle Academy programme since 2015, and thousands of students trained via Oracle’s educational resources platform.
Established 25 years ago, Oracle Academy is software giant Oracle’s philanthropic global, educational programme, which provides a complete portfolio of software, curriculum, hosted technology, faculty training, support and certification resources to higher education institutions and vocational high school pupils.
Speaking to ITWeb on the side-lines of Oracle OpenWorld 2020 held at the Dubai Trade Centre Arena last week, Andrew Sordam, VP for Oracle’s Technology Business and MD for Sub-Saharan Africa, noted the academy has provided computing education to 128 countries across the globe, driving knowledge, innovation, skills development and diversity in technology fields.
“There is a rising demand for IT skills across all industries, and through our partnership with various institutions and organisations, Oracle Academy helps students develop key programming skills for college and career readiness. We also work with public and private partners to provide the tools and training required by educators to engage, inspire and prepare students to become innovators and leaders of the future.
“We provide the platform and the institutions can customise the curriculum to suit their requirements. This is an investment from Oracle that ensures the global community gets access to the latest tech skills,” explained Sordam.
The Oracle Academy course curriculum includes: Java programming; artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in Java; database foundations; database design and programming with SQL; and programming with LP/SQL, which is taught as part of a blended learning programme, both online and in the classroom.
Over 800 educators in SSA have been trained on the Oracle Academy educator courses, since 2015.
Last year, Oracle introduced its Oracle Cloud Free Tier services for organisations and also enabled Oracle Academy institutional member educators and their students to access these cloud services through the Oracle Academy Cloud Programme.
Since 2015, the software firm has worked with more than 15 000 global educational institutions in 128 countries, helping more than 6.3 million students worldwide become career-ready.
In SA, the academy has partnered with 82 institutions, including Durban University of Technology, University of Cape Town, University of Free State and Crawford College in Pretoria.
Last year, Oracle Kenya signed a memorandum of understanding with Kenyatta University, to equip 7 000 engineering and science students with technology, communication and interpersonal skills to advance their careers for the future workplace.
In the same year, the enterprise software firm partnered with the University of Mauritius, to equip 1 000 students from the Faculty of Information Communication and Digital Technologies with resources in the form of cloud-centred technical support and mentorship.
Faculty staff are also trained in three tier programmes, exploring the latest technologies in the cloud and how to impart information on building new value for businesses in AI, ML, blockchain and all other emerging technologies, noted Sordam.
“Cloud technology has revolutionised business by giving users access to applications and data and enables business innovation, which leads to increased profits. Oracle Academy understands and values educators as partners who are empowered to facilitate innovative student learning in and outside the classroom. We have hundreds of educators that have been trained on Oracle Academy courses and we intend to keep adding more over the next few years.”
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