- Andela Cuts 420 Junior Engineers for Experienced Engineers
In an effort to tap into the growing demand for high-quality tech engineers, Andela has announced it would let go 250 junior talents in Nigeria and another 170 in Kenya.
According to Jeremy Johnson, the company Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, top companies in need of Andala service are demanding for high-quality engineers but because the company’s strategy has always been to train young desirable talents and place them with global companies, it has been unable to meet the increasing demand for more established engineers.
He said Andela started sourcing and evaluating senior engineers across the African continent and now they represent 25 percent of Andela talent base.
While the rising demand for senior engineers has helped drive junior placement, it has not been enough as the company has trained over 1500 engineers in the last five years.
Johnson said: “While placing teams led by senior engineers has helped drive additional junior placement, it hasn’t been enough. We now have significantly more junior talent than we are able to place. Just as important, those junior engineers want, and deserve, authentic work experience that we are not able to provide. As a result, we’ve come to the conclusion that Andela’s next phase of growth requires a strategic shift in how we think about talent.”
Andela, therefore announced it would shift focus to senior engineers and hire 700 experienced engineers between now and the end of 2020.
“Going forward, we will hire another 700 experienced engineers by the end of 2020 in order to keep up with demand from our partners. To continue creating junior engineering talent at scale, we will invest in the Andela Learning Community, through which we’ve already trained more than 30,000 learners in software engineering fundamentals. Over the next three years, we plan to cultivate more than 100,000 engineers across the continent who will, in time, contribute to the growth of their local tech ecosystems as well as the broader technology community,” added.
Andela Challenges Going Forward
In the past, Andela has been able to attract global icons as investors because it trains African talents and places them with global companies, something most icons and global companies love to identify with.
In fact, one of the notable names, Serena Williams, said she invested in “companies that embrace diverse leadership, individual empowerment, creativity and opportunity.”
Even Andela has pushed the company brand and gain global acceptance with its mission statement, “To advance human potential by powering today’s teams and investing in tomorrow’s leaders.”
Therefore, focusing on just experienced engineers because there is a growing demand for them will hurt its attractiveness and necessitate a different marketing strategy.
Also, local governments of its operating nations in Africa may accuse the company of exporting their brightest minds since established engineers are likely to abandon their current jobs for a place in a new global RECRUITING company, Andela.
Andela will now close its D0 program in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda to focus on just Rwanda. Suggesting that the company is cutting operating costs to focus more on profitability.
“Today, we are announcing that we are closing the D0 program in Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda. Moving forward, we will be focusing D0 training efforts on our pan-African hub in Rwanda.”