On Monday, October 5, 2020, the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub announced its partnership with Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB) – Africa’s largest innovation centre to launch the Innovative Teachers Fellowship to empower teachers with technology-based training content and activities. The Launch announcements were made via social media on the twitter pages of both organizations and the applications opened to teachers across Nigeria.
The Innovative Teachers Fellowship is a 6-week intensive program designed for teachers in Nigeria to provide 21st-century teaching skills focused on the use of technology to create interactive learning content for students and the use of digitals tools to support learning. The virtual programme is open to all pre-service and in-service teachers in Nigeria both in STEM or Non-STEM specialties’.
Nissi Madu, Practice Lead, re:learn – the Education Practice at CcHUB, highlighted the focus of the practice on raising the next generation of highly innovative thinkers who would solve our most pressing problems in Nigeria and across Africa. “We believe strongly that teachers are the catalysts to achieving this vision at scale and so it’s important that we empower them with the resources and the skills that they need to transform and deliver 21st-century learning in their classrooms. This motivated the design of the Innovative Teachers Fellowship and we are excited to be partnering with the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub on this project.”
Similarly, Honey Ogundeyi, the Country Director of the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub reiterated the aim of the Hub to identify, develop and deliver tailored interventions to cultivate digital skills responding to the needs and opportunities for inclusion. The Covid -19 pandemic is revolutionizing digital and online education. Teachers play a key role in creating a digital learning environment, increasing the participation of students in particular girls in STEM education. Our aim with this UK- Nigeria Tech Hub programme is to empower teachers with the tools and skills to enable them contribute to the growth of digital and STEM education in Nigeria with a particular focus on empowering teachers in rural and underserved communities.
This Fellowship also lends more credence to the urgent need for the upskilling of teachers, in preparation for a technology driven future in Education. This urgency made more relevant by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in the shutting down of schools, pushing learning online and requiring teachers to adapt to the new realities and system of virtual learning.
Some focus areas for the virtual training sessions include the use of 21st-century teaching methods such as digital labs, digital tools for content delivery and assessment, classroom management as well as digital safety skills. The Fellowship will also improve the social skills of
the participating teachers through the various collaborative activities including webinars and teacher showcases aimed to help the teachers see applications of the concepts they have learned in solving real-world problems. These webinar sessions will be led by Edtech industry experts.
Shortlisted teachers were hosted in a virtual info session by the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub to grant the teachers the opportunity to know more about this programme, ask questions on the programme design, criteria for certification, timing, and to outline their expectations from the programme. The teachers in this info-session were also briefed on the minimum requirement to qualify for certification at the end of the 6 weeks training period as certificates will be issued to the participating teachers by the Tai Solarin University of Education, Ogun State, Nigeria.
About the UK- Nigeria Tech Hub
The UK-Nigeria Tech Hub has been established as part of the UK’s Digital Access Programme (DAP), a UK Government Prosperity Fund initiative. The UK-Nigeria Tech Hub aims to develop a stronger Nigerian digital ecosystem through the development of skills, entrepreneurship and business partnerships.
About CCHUB
Co-creation Hub is Nigeria’s premier social innovation centre dedicated to accelerating application of social capital and technology for economic prosperity in Nigeria. CcHUB works closely with stakeholders including social entrepreneurs, technologists, civil society, government and private sector to identify and nurture novel solutions to social challenges in Nigeria. Its education practice re:learn, has a commitment to improve STEM education by leveraging technology to create engaging content and introducing innovative teaching methods to STEM teachers with the aim of improving the learning outcomes of the students.
Individuals interested in keeping up with the progress of the programme are encouraged to follow both organizations for updates across the following social media channels:
| UK-Nigeria Tech Hub: | CC Hub: |
| Twitter: @ukngtechhub | Instgram: @Cc_Hub, Twitter: @relearnNG, @edtechcoe |
| Instagram: @ukngtechhub | |
| LinkedIn: @UK-Nigeria Tech Hub |
