A Glimpse Into The Situation of Digital Skills In Nigeria and the Role of Google Digital Skills for Africa Training Programme
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| Digital Skills Image. Source Here |
In the early 21st century and in the wake of technological advancement, the world was battling with the problem of 'DIGITAL DIVIDE'. This was a term used to describe the gap between people who have regular and beneficial access and control of modern information technology and those who do not. And as it is our wont, Africa was found wanting - with 2%, 10% and 21.8% of internet usage within the periods of 2005, 2010 and 2017, respectively. As against their European counterparts with Internet usage of 46%, 67% and 79% within the same years.
However, today, that narrative has changed.
The world population is now up 7.4 billion people and about 30 billion devices are projected to be connected to the Internet this year, 2020. Which implies that they'd be average of 6.58 number of connected devices per consumer this year - also implying that there are more smart devices today than they're humans!
So the problem of digital divide has been truncated... Giving rise to yet another problem: Digital Skills divide. And again, Africa is lagging behind in this regards.
So What is Digital Skills?
According to the Canadian Human Resources and Skills Development, digital skills involve the knowledge and ability to determine information needs from digital technology sources, and to appropriately use digital tools and facilities to input, access, organize, integrate and assess digital resources as well as to construct new knowledge, create media expressions and communicate with others. Digital skills include both technical skills associated with understanding and using digital systems, tools, and applications, as well as information processing skills, which are the cognitive underpinnings of digital proficiency.
Digital Skills transcends the question of access to internet to how well and how effectively you're using the internet. Do you just use the Internet for entertainment purposes or have you discovered the educational and business aspects of the Internet? As digital skills are the key to the entire process of the appropriation of these new technologies. These skills are vital for living, working, studying, and entertaining oneself in an information society. Therefore, digital Skills divide spells unequal access to opportunities presented by the internet.
Let's conduct a little experiment to understand the situation of digital skills in Nigeria.
We are going to use Google trends to peek into what majority of Nigerians have been searching for on the Internet for the year of 2019 and compare with that of South Africa.
From this image above, Nigeria's Internet users where mostly searching for items like 'ASUU Strike', 'AFCON 2019', 'Naira Marley', etc.
Now let's bring South Africa's trend into the scene and compare both:
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| Top 10 Searched Items in Nigeria for 2019 Google Trends, 2019 |
From this image above, Nigeria's Internet users where mostly searching for items like 'ASUU Strike', 'AFCON 2019', 'Naira Marley', etc.
Now let's bring South Africa's trend into the scene and compare both:
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| South Africa's Most Searched Terms for 2019 Google Trends, 2019. |
Here, South Africa Internet users were found to be using the 'near me' searches frequently, and where searching for items such as 'job openings near me', 'parks near me', 'restaurants near me', etc.
The above discovery has implications for both the individuals and businesses:
There has been an exponential growth in 'near me' searches, among other popular internet search phrases. In fact, it is reported that this search phrase has grown to a whooping 900%, dwarfing other search phrases. Hence, near me is an important search phrase that can lead to discovery of local services, impacting leads generation and drive growth to local businesses.
Now as a business, having spent a large sum of money to build a website and establish an online presence, when no one is searching for your products or services, there's bound to be a dent in your ROI. It might be hard for you to attract random users with interest in your products and convert them to customers.
As an individual or Jobseeker, when you do not utilise the 'job near me' searches, you're bound to miss out on a lot of job opportunities and due to that fact, companies might be feeling reluctant to posting vacancies online because no one or only few are searching for them among other things.
You can now see that the most basic digital skill involves the use of digital resources like the internet to obtain information. And as you saw in that google trends comparison between Nigeria and South Africa, we've failed woefully in that aspect. So if we could fail in the basic aspects of using the internet effectively... You shouldn't expect something different from other advanced usage.
Now this is where the Google Digital Skills comes in.
Now this is where the Google Digital Skills comes in.
What is Google Digital Skills?
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| Google Digital Skill Banner. Source Google |
Google Digital Skills for Africa is designed to help improve employability and business growth. The trainings are highly tailored content for Job Seekers and Small and Medium sized Businesses (SMBs).
In-person (offline) courses are delivered through training partners across Africa who also provide post training resources to further the learning.
Online, trainees learn at their own pace, unlock badges and receive a certificate of proficiency. Course content includes more than 100 lessons that can be accessed online here.
Google wants to help close the digital skills gap in Africa, encourage entrepreneurship among the youths and to reduce unemployment. So through this training you'd be exposed to the relevant skills of the 21st that will help you stay in demand in the labour market and propel you ahead of your peers - professional and career-wise.
And as a business person, this training will educate you on how to use the powerful tools of the internet to fish for more customers. As you can see, there's 'net' in the word 'internet', so we'll show you how to detach that net from the internet, cast it the appropriate way and catch more customers from this vast sea of internet users. We'll even introduce you to tools you can use to check where the "fishes" in quote are coming from and to measure your performance and progress, amongst others.
Since the launch in March, 2016, more than 3 million people have been trained and trainings have been offered in 29 African countries. The aim is to train up to 100 million people by 2022.
As a Google Digital Skill Trainer, I work with Sanstonz Consulting Ltd to deliver both online and offline trainings.
You can reach me on the following handles:
About.meAs a Google Digital Skill Trainer, I work with Sanstonz Consulting Ltd to deliver both online and offline trainings.
You can reach me on the following handles:
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ReplyDeleteWith time and the right awareness more Nigerians can also tap into the greatness of digital marketing
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