Nigeria’s AltSchool Raises $1M Fund to Train Software Engineers Across Africa

A tech training school in Nigeria, AltSchool has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to train more students in technical and software skills training.

The training is centered on equipping students from different countries in Africa with marketable digital skills in order to step up the standard of living of the people. 

Investors King reports that AltSchool is an online school with a curriculum to train non-technical people, endowing them with technical and soft skills. They also partner with higher institutions to provide diploma certificates.

The online tech hub was founded by Adewale Yusuf, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), alongside Akintunde Sultan and Opeyemi Awoyemi.

More than 8,000 people have applied for AltSchool’s software engineering programme which starts in April with a fee of ₦10,000, almost $20. These applications came from 19 countries (including 14 African countries) with most entries from Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya and Botswana.

Giving the highlights of the programme, Yusuf said the applicants will be provided with a home study kit in preparation for an assessment test. 

He continued, “those admitted into the school, meeting a pass mark of 85%, will take a software engineering course with three tracks: frontend engineering, backend engineering and cloud engineering. In the one-year programme, students take classes for nine months – three semesters, followed by a three-month internship at local tech companies to gain experience.

“Those who do not get admitted into its programme are not left out. AltSchool gives them access to the platform’s first-semester content for free and practice. If they stick to the end of the three-month curriculum, AltSchool will provide avenues for them to complete the entire nine-month programme.”

Explaining the essence of the training, Yusuf noted that the AltSchool is set to boost the economy by providing useful tech skills to students regardless of their qualifications.

He said, “You might need a BSc if you want to be a doctor or nurse and some of these other skills. But when it comes to being a software engineer or digital skills, you really don’t.

“We need to find a shortcut for people, whereby they will be able to make money and provide for their family and add value to the economy. That’s one of the reasons we launched AltSchool because if a lot of people can have marketable skills, then I think we can solve a massive problem in the market.”

The CEO further revealed that the AltSchool will use the funds raised “to build its content and curriculum, technology infrastructure and community concept, where students will meet offline to network and learn together.”

With Nigeria’s large population and increasing unemployment rate amongst the large number of graduates that are launched out each year, Yusuf expressed optimism that the digital skills of his training hub will go far in helping the situation.

He added that the traditional schooling system is insufficient to get university graduates decent jobs.

Investors King recalls that in 2020, the CEO with his team embarked on building a physical campus to train software engineers and open them up to international opportunities. He consulted major stakeholders and sourced for assistance in tertiary institutions but it didn’t work out as planned.

After much research, Yusuf resolved to embrace a remote-centric approach to make his idea and goals materialise.

The AltSchool team scales on sister-company and Techstars-backed TalentQL, launching products such as Pipeline, to train mid-level engineers to become senior engineers. The firm is also working on B2B partnerships with private schools in Nigeria and Africa, using AltSchool’s curriculum in their classes.