AltSchool Africa – an African program that allows individuals looking forward to building a career in tech by Nigerian startup, TalentQL has secured the sum of $1 million dollars in a pre-seed round.
The round which had individual investors such as Flutterwave co-founder and CEO, Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, Paystack co-founder and CEO, Shola Akinlade, Nigerian musician, Folarin Falana popularly known as Flazthebahdguy, and Akitoye Balogun, another Nigerian musician known as Ajebutter22; while the venture capital firms are Nestcoin, Pledges, Voltron Capital, and Odba VC.
AltSchool intends to use this funding to build its content and curriculum, technology infrastructure, and expand its “community Peering Learning” initiative, which allows participants to meet physically on occasion to network, learn, and exchange ideas.
Also, the team will also focus on upscaling its sister company and Techstars-backed TalentQL’s Pipeline.
The Pipeline programme is one that trains mid-level engineers and turns them into senior engineers, and places them into global companies.
TalentQL which was founded in late 2021 by Adewale Yusuf, Opeyemi Awoyemi and Akintunde Sultan, hires, develops and manages remote talent for global companies.
The startup is building a pipeline of quality talent for African companies as well as source and manage top local talents for leading international firms. Its training model includes building talent campuses in less-crowded African cities with proximity to top tertiary institutions. Presently, in its talent network, it has 3,000 vetted individuals.
In November, TalentQL raised a US$300,000 funding round, also, it recently added US$120,000 to that after being selected to take part in Techstars Toronto.
TalentQL had launched AltSchool Africa, as one structured around a comprehensive curriculum designed to impart the knowledge required to gain employment as a qualified software engineer without the rigours of a traditional four-year undergraduate degree programme.
Students can take advantage of a flexible study schedule to complete all the modules while attending to their existing professional and personal commitments. Designed to be beginner-friendly for students, the programme is open to candidates with no prior knowledge or experience in software engineering.
AltSchool Africa is also a platform without borders, as it does not charge tuition upfront. This means that students will only pay after the completion of their diploma programme and upon securing a job. The one-year programme also comes with a three-month internship that would provide students with ample opportunity to perfect their newly acquired software engineering skills in a professional setting.
Adewale Yusuf, co-founder of TalentQL, said “We are very excited to be introducing AltSchool Africa to the continent. Our mission at TalentQL has always been to decentralise and democratise opportunities for African Talents, and this is just another way we are fulfilling that mission”.
“We are empowering individuals interested in a career in tech with a solid foundation that will enable them to gain access to a truly global spectrum of tech jobs thereby and competitive salaries”, he added.
