Digital Employability and Entrepreneurship

Program (DEEP)
Expanding our Youth Apprenticeship Model

A Concept Note by Asante Africa Foundation

2024

Educating Children | Transforming Worlds

www.asanteafrica.org
KENYA | TANZANIA | UGANDA | USA
Executive Summary

Asante Africa is assisting rural youth to develop the digital, leadership, and application skills for
creating viable livelihood pathways in East Africa.
This concept note outlines our Digital Employability and Entrepreneurship Program (DEEP) initiative. The
DEEP initiative provides out-of-school youth (ages 18-24) in rural areas with a 15-month intensive digital
skills, entrepreneurship, and leadership program, training them in software development,
hardware/software maintenance, entrepreneurial/business development, project management, and job
readiness. Through hands-on project-based training and partnerships with industry leaders like Google,
Cisco, Salesforce, and Amazon, as well as local businesses and national governments, participants gain
globally recognized certifications, more than 1,500 hours of field training, and the skills needed to secure
employment or create their own job opportunities in the digital economy.
We deliver our DEEP training using a proven, practical education methodology, Learn-Do-Teach. We
then use Pay-It-Forward to create an outward wave of skill transfer within the community. Through Pay-
It-Forward, each DEEP Apprentice trains at least three additional individuals. Once trained, these three
individuals will then train at least three more individuals each, and so on. The DEEP initiative aims to
establish a cascading training program in the community that will sustain itself. The Pay-It-Forward
model is a low-risk, cost-effective, high-impact approach to enable youth to build self-confidence, work
as a team, and expand their critical thinking capacity while passing on their knowledge to their peers.

Simon Mwangangi, The Visionary behind the initiative

Simon Mwangagni, Director of Digital Transformation, is an Education Technologist with over ten years of
experience developing Digital Literacy Programs. Simon is a High School graduate with numerous years of
self-taught software, hardware and project management skills.
He is a visionary in the ed-tech space, Simon won the Google 2018 Impact Challenge for creating the Lewa
digital literacy program (which brings digital access and tools to Lewa-supported schools in Kenya) What
is LEWA?. He recruits team leaders with similar backgrounds and achievements.
In November 2022, The Kingdom of Bahrain recognized Asante Africa Foundation for our Digital
Innovation in support of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #4 for Quality Education
out of 7,000 nominations across 122 countries.

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DEEP Initiative Pilot Impact

In 2021-2022 the DEEP program trained and mentored 22 digital apprentices, creating a team of master
trainers. Once the apprentices/master trainers completed certifications, they went to schools (as a part
of their field project) as technicians. Each owned around 5-6 schools reaching 100 students/school. This
program has indeed proved to be an accelerator to help our apprentices reach and inspire other youth
by mentoring them as master trainers and also to either join the digital economy or launch digital
enterprises. The ripple effect of this program is providing an opportunity to not only the apprentices but
even the youth in school to have access to digital literacy and be inspired by the achievements of their
master trainers who are largely impacting the communities they are coming from.

DEEP Professional Skills

● Project management - Self-management within a virtual team, critical path planning, and
management, negotiating deadlines and deliverables, contingency planning
● Job Readiness - Measuring growth in knowledge of how to interview, secure internships or jobs,
and apply knowledge in the job market both in person and in a virtual setting
● Enterprise ownership - Supporting youth to launch entrepreneurial endeavors and improve
family livelihood potentials
● Entrepreneurial Financial Literacy - Use of personal savings programs, knowledge of the
structure of a business budget for their enterprise

DEEP Technical Skills

● Project management for software development, hardware systems and integration
● Art and science of code development, data structures, and dynamic programming
● Basic HTML and HTML5UX Design Process: Empathize, Define, and Ideate
● UI Design: Course for Beginners
● JavaScript: Algorithms and Data Structures and JavaScript Libraries and Frameworks
● Python: Frameworks and Data structures
● Beginner Mobile App development and Data Structures
● Java Programming: Arrays, Lists, and Structured Data
● Supported by Globally recognized Certificates from companies like Google, CISCO, Salesforce,
and AWS

How DEEP measures impact: short, mid, and longer term

Asante Africa Foundation deploys a holistic Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) framework to
measure the DEEP expansion initiative impact. Monitoring will incorporate process monitoring,
individual apprentice monitoring, and overall results monitoring using a results-based management
system. This system deploys a mix of qualitative and quantitative measurements.
We measure three levels of Impact.
1. At the Youth Apprentice level:
85% of the apprentices have built their resumes and have now secured jobs with different
organizations. 10% of the apprentices have started technology maintenance hubs and cyber

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shops to support the education technology initiatives in their communities and access to
government services from remote regions.
● 11 apprentices secured jobs with exponential salary increases:
● 8 examples here
- Rose (Kenya single mother) - USD 60>400/mo - Curriculum Developer@EdTechCompany
- Joseph (Kenya) - USD 100>600/mo - CTO@EdHub
- Jim (Kenya) - USD 150>650/mo - SoftwareDev@AsterixSW
- Bridget (Uganda) - USD 0>200/mo - EdTech@Asante Africa
- Margret (Kenya) - USD 0>300/mo - DigitalInventoryManager@GroceryStore
- Dickson (Tanzania) - USD 0>200/mo - EdTech@Asante Africa
- Christine (Kenya) - USD 0>200/mo -Scholarship Coordinator@Asante Africa
- Boniface (Kenya) – USD 50>200/mo – Radio Station IT and DJ for Youth programming
● 1 apprentice received a scholarship = Dorin, TZ - Masters-Public Health.
● 9 apprentices started a business
● 4 examples here
- Alex (Kenya) - USD 0>370/mo - Freelance Data Analyst
- Yvonne (Kenya) - USD 0>150/mo - Boutique Business Owner
- John (Kenya) - USD 100>370/mo - Freelance Data Scientist
- Patrick (Kenya) - USD 0>350/mo - Kwetu Cyber Shop Owner
See appendix 1 for DEEP apprentice success stories.
2. At the School or Learning Group Level
As a part of their hands-on field training each apprentice put their knowledge int proactive over
a 9 month period of time. As part of program they are working within our existing schools.
● In 1 year and over 1500 hours in the field, 22 apprentices worked across 129 schools
(34 in Uganda, 32 in Tanzania, and 63 in Kenya) in partnership with over 600 educators
and administrators, collaborating to reach over 6,740 students directly.
3. At the family and societal level:
Not only the apprentices but the learners in schools and communities are launching their own
initiatives.
DEEP apprentices represented families where the mean income was under $5/day. DEEP has:
● Increased average family income levels by 300%/mo with an average salary of >USD 327/mo
● Contributed to community problem-solving, e.g., Boniface (Kenya) started a radio youth
program
● Fostered gender equality: women working alongside male peers, securing digital
employment & challenging conventional power dynamics

● Tech Leaders: Our partnership with government entities will ensure continued access to a free
digital literacy curriculum with international certification. We source our technical training
content from:
- Project Management Institute (PMI)
- Google
- Coursera
- IBM

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- AZURE
- CISCO
We seek opportunities to partner with tech leaders in trending digital fronts like Google, to
create a community of volunteer experts in our youth on digital entrepreneurship and upskilling.

● Online Academic Partnerships:

We partner with academic institutions in our DEEP curriculum deliver with content from:
- Khan Academy
- National Curriculum Development Council (NCDC) for countries we operate in
- Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KIDC)
- ICT Authority Kenya
- Ubongo
- TAI Tanzania
- Cousera

DEEP Initiative Expansion: Budget

it is estimated to utilize about 3,000 USD/ intern over 15-18 months. This includes:
● Initial onboarding expenses (laptop, software, licenses for content)
● 4-6 month training program- (they volunteer their time )
● Field work (stipends, transport, airtime, and communications)
● Stipends for business mentors’ expenses,
● Global certifications and Examination fees and expenses
● Job readiness and entrepreneurship training -working with recruiters and Business enterprise.
● Staff support and operating expense ( office, financial, project management / country).

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Appendix 1: DEEP Apprentice Success Stories

Rose Adhiambo Ochieng

Rose Joined Asante Africa in 2020 as a janitor. The
financial barriers following the covid 19 pandemic
economic crisis challenged her dreams of being a teacher.
In 2021 Rose joined the first cohort of our DEEP
apprenticeship program as a volunteer while still helping
with her janitor work in our offices. After six months of
seeing her potential, Asante Africa Foundation enrolled
Rose as a full-time digital apprentice. She continued
working until she graduated from the DEEP program with
a globally recognized certificate in IT support from Google
and a certificate in Computer Networking. She also
graduated with a 1-year experience in Education

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Technology and remotely completed her course in Education (Bachelor of Education Arts) through
online study. Immediately after graduation, Rose secured a Job with an Education Technology Company
in Kenya as the Head of curriculum development.

“Thank you, Asante Africa Foundation, for empowering me to be a woman of substance.”

Kelvin Kirimi
Kelvin joined the first cohort of our DEEP apprenticeship program in 2021 and graduated with a
certificate in Digital Animation. His passion for education led him to find opportunities where he could
develop animations to improve the quality of educational content. Kelvin is now a senior animator at
EdHub, a company developing digital content for education.

Timothy Maina
Timothy Joined the first cohort of our DEEP apprenticeship program as a volunteer in 2022. He studied
Full stack development and acquired a Globally recognized certificate from IBM. He is now a Junior
developer at Savannah Informatics Ltd.

Joseph Koome
Joseph joined the first cohort of our DEEP apprenticeship program in 2021. Joseph’s journey as a full-
stack developer began in the DEEP program. Through online study, he learned Software development
and applied his technical skills in developing digital content for education. After graduation, he started
his own business and now works with organizations with digital marketing.

"As a website developer, I have implemented over 50 websites, among them corporates, NGOs,
hospitals, schools, and many others. I interact with different directors, CEOs, and startup founders. I
take pride in helping people win and grow; it is my joy when innovation creates an impact. I have
developed systems and mobile applications which have been well-received and awarded. Through the
process, I have been glad to be in charge of teams where I have greatly grown as a leader and other
leaders. I love engaging in new challenges, and my current role as Chief Technology Officer while doing
project management tasks has helped me stretch the limits and achieve results quickly. I know anything
is possible with the right mindset."

Dorin Mmasi
Dorin joined the first cohort of our DEEP apprenticeship program in 2021.
“The Apprenticeship program has opened a world of opportunities I wasn’t aware of before. After one
year of leadership in the Digital Apprenticeship Program, I developed digital skills that helped me take
advantage of opportunities worldwide. I identified, applied, and qualified for a scholarship in Public
Health Research due to my leadership and technical skills. I look forward to using data science to
promote public health in Africa.”

Bridget Ainebyona
Bridget, a single mother at 16, joined the first cohort of our DEEP
apprenticeship program in 2021. After graduating from the
program with a qualification in software development, Brigit is
now giving back to her local community as an associate facilitator
for Akira Chix (a local enterprise that aims to close the gender gap
by providing market relevant technical skill programs to women).

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