SIMAD University, in collaboration with the US Mission to Somalia, announces Empower NextGen Somalia, a premier one-year mentorship program to support the Somali youth to complete a fully-sponsored training program at IITE Institute, SIMAD University.

Through edX Inc., participants will take practical courses related to entrepreneurship, innovation, mobile apps development, and web-programming from MIT, Harvard University, and Delft. IITE Institute will facilitate the program and conclude with a three-months mentorship program to better localize the course contents and help the youth horn marketable skills and gain as much knowledge as possible from the training program.

The main objective of the program is to equip young Somalis with the most in-demand skills that will allow them to create opportunities for themselves and also find innovative solutions to address local challenges including the rampant unemployment in Somalia through technology innovation and entrepreneurship.

The program will mentor, guide, and build the skills for 40 participants under two tracks: Entrepreneurship Track (20) and ICT Track (20). See the program model shown below for the courses under each track:

Phase I (2 months)

Forty (40) participants will take the entrepreneurship course of MIT (Note: all participants under both tracks should complete this course before proceeding to their respective tracks. This is necessary for creating an entrepreneurial mindset among the youth).

Phase II (7 months)

All the participants will proceed to their respective tracks: 20 participants for the Entrepreneurship Track while the other 20 will embark the ICT Track.

Final Phase (3 months)

All participants (40) will take the final practical component of the program. This comprises of five field workshops using IDEO-inspired Design Thinking content. The participants will also take Design Driven Entrepreneurship course developed by YALI Online.

Application

Applications are now closed for the Empower NextGen Somalia training program.

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