Check out this inspirational story of Andela's first female fellow who is a bad ass programmer and also a huge Nairalander!! Congratulations Jumoke!

http://www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2015/05/14/andela-an-african-company-paying-people-to-learn-computer-science
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Rather than charging tuition, what would happen if a company flipped higher education on its head and paid people to learn?

"Throughout my life, so much of me thinks of education as a pathway to opportunity," says Jeremy Johnson, an education technology entrepreneur. "But unfortunately, done well it's pretty expensive – [that] is the challenge."

But that's exactly what Johnson did when he co-founded Andela with Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Ian Carnevale and Christina Sass. Based in Africa, the company recruits individuals to train as software developers over the course of four months. The fellows then make a four-year commitment – they're placed to work remotely with a technology company that partners with Andela, and receive continual training and professional development while they live on campus. Most of the companies Andela partners with – such as Microsoft, 2U (the company Johnson co-founded in 2008) and Udacity – are based in the United States.

[READ: Coding Companies Fill a Gap Between Higher Education and the Workforce]

The venture-backed company – which received funding from high-profile individuals such as Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, AOL co-founder Steve Case and Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks – invests about $10,000 in salary and training costs per student during the training process before the fellows are placed with a company.
Johnson says he was inspired to focus on training individuals in Africa after he visited Nairobi about a year and a half ago​ to speak to industry donors and partners about the state of online education.

"I just became kind of blown away by the incredible under-utilized human capital that I saw everywhere," Johnson says.

Olajumoke Oladimeji, 30, was Andela’s first female fellow.
Olajumoke Oladimeji, 30, was Andela’s first female fellow.
In some African nations – such as South Africa – youth unemployment is higher than 50 percent. In Nigeria, where Andela's main campus is located in the city of Lagos, more than 11 million people between 15 and 34 were unemployed in 2012 – and college graduates accounted for 20 percent of that population, according to an analysis by​ the Brookings Institution. And Johnson says when youth underemployment is taken into account, about 90 percent of young people are considered unemployed or underemployed in some parts of the continent.

"[That] means even the brightest young people just don't have paths into the formal economy," Johnson says.

Olajumoke Oladimeji, 30, graduated from Lagos State University in 2009 with a degree in computer and electronic engineering, but says she was unable to find a job afterward.

She says she set out on her own to start a catering business in her neighborhood before later joining a brokerage​ firm – a job, but not one where she could use her degree.

[ALSO: Making it Count: Computer Science Spreads as Graduation Requirement]

"I had always wanted to be a software developer. I had even applied for a job as a developer and built an app as part of the application process, but I didn't get the position," Oladimeji says. "Nevertheless, I was still determined to be a programmer, so when a friend told me about Andela I saw it as an opportunity to fulfill my dream."

Oladimeji became Andela's first female fellow earlier this year. She's also one of a very select group of people that makes it through Andela's selection process. Johnson says the company has received 14,000 applications in the last 10 months, and has an acceptance rate of less than 1 percent. By comparison, the most selective universities in the United States – Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton and Columbia, for example – all have acceptance rates between 5 percent and 8 percent.

From left, Yetunde Sanni, instructor Nadayar Enegesi, Kosi Anyanwu and other developers attend the Andela all-female boot camp in December 2014.
From left, Yetunde Sanni, instructor Nadayar Enegesi, Kosi Anyanwu and other developers attend the Andela all-female boot camp in December 2014.
"Our plan is to train 100,000 genius-level young people across the continent over the next 10 years, but we're always going to have very selective approaches," Johnson says. "What we care about is being able to train in a really high-quality way. And the reason we're able to do that is because the people that are in the program and the developers that Andela produces are head and shoulders above what you'd expect for a junior developer."

But there's a mix of experience levels and education among the fellows: Some have a college degree in math, engineering or computer science, and some don't. Some – including Oladimeji – have taught themselves basic computer science skills. Some have taken other types of free, online courses, while others just show a strong interest and aptitude for software development, but there's no requirement for any kind of formal training, Johnson says.

[MORE: Tech Companies Work to Combat Computer Science Education Gap]

Even after they're placed with a company – working a standard 40-hour week – the fellows have 15 to 20 additional hours each week of optional professional development courses to strengthen either their technical experience or soft skills.

Moving forward, Johnson says Andela has plans to expand to either Kenya, Ghana or South Africa.

"We're striving for a level of code quality and excellence in what we do that is seldom seen outside of major tech hubs in the developed world," Johnson says. "People are remarkably good at rising or falling to whatever expectations are held for them. And we have high expectations."


http://www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2015/05/14/andela-an-african-company-paying-people-to-learn-computer-science

this is eye popping... So how can someone like me partake beacuse am interested o...