The Inaugural Edition of the Afterschool Centre for Career Development Digital Summer Academy was held on August 14^th – 31st 2017. Metamorphosed from the ACCD Pre-Tertiary programme which is focused on Career Development programming for Secondary School leavers. The Digital Summer Academy aimed at improving the digital skills of young people in our community and enabling their learning, employment and engagement in the Digital Communications and Technology Industry.

The programme curriculum covered Web Designing & Development, Social Media Management, Graphics Design, Android App Development, Animation & Video Production ,Robotics and Google Tools. Other areas covered during the programme include Career Counselling, Mentoring sessions, Psychometric test, Free Software Installation, Leadership  and Financial Education ,Excursions to Leading Technology Companies and tour sites as well as a #DSAHotseat session with leading professionals in Nigeria.

Participants were taken through theoretical and practical lessons delivered through an interactive facilitation style with the objective of enabling them develop fluency in most digital languages and build on their post Summer Academy projects which was presented at the DSA PitchFest held during the Academy’s Graduation ceremony.

Speaking at the Academy’s Graduation, the Keynote Speaker Mr. Hanson Johnson, CEO of Start Innovation Hub and Google Country Mentor, Nigeria charged participants on the topic Teens in Technology: Finding your digital signature; he shared successful stories of young people shaping the Africa Tech Space.

The Winners of the Digital Summer Academy PitchFest  include: Team Engage – a team of 5 whose idea is to develop a community website to link secondary school graduates to jobs/internship/training opportunities carted away the First Prize, Team 9ja Kulture won the  2^nd prize with their crowdsourcing Cultural blog idea while the 3^rd Prize was clinched by Team SRH with their Safe Space Sexuality Education platform for Teenagers. In Personal category the best all round Prize went to Miss Abigail Okon who wants to create a platform to link Midwives and Pregnant Women in Nigeria. The Winners received various Prizes including,3- 6 Months incubation Support, Website development and Hosting, from Afterschool Centre for Career Development, Calabar Blog, Start Innovation Hub while the grand prize of a full scholarship to attend  and pitch at the Google Developer Fest 2017 went to Team Engage and Miss Abigail Okon. The DSA Summer Academy was delivered with in-kind support from Girls Power Initiative and the Cross River State Job Centre.

Commenting on the impact of the Academy, the participants stated thus:

“The choice of career I have in mind is Nursing Science but now, the DSA program has helped me shape my idea on the importance of been technologically inclined because technology is the future’’- Rebecca Akpan.

‘’The DSA program has influenced the choice of my career digitally. Since the world is going digital, I have acquire a lot of skills, it’s now left for me to act on them – Francis Benjamin’’

‘’Before I took part in the Academy, I already had interest in studying computer science in the University. The DSA Academy has help understand the industry more and how I can fit in’’ – Sarah Udo

‘’The DSA program has influenced my career choice in different ways especially expanding my knowledge about creating a blog, I now own a proper blog’’- Blessing Ogah

‘’The DSA program has influenced me positively. With the skills I have acquired, I want to create an online digital library for secondary school students’’- Edidiong Thompson.

About Afterschool Centre for Career Development:

Afterschool Centre for Career Development (formerly known as Afterschool Peer Mentoring Project) is a non-governmental, capacity development organization committed to inspiring, investing and engaging young people as well as facilitating growth opportunities for young persons in transitional stages of their lives.