The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and GetBundi Education Technology have commenced phase 2 of the training of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members on digital skills.

The training, which focuses on Graphics, Digital Marketing, and Cybersecurity, comes under NITDA’s ongoing Digital Literacy for All Initiative (DL4ALL), which aims to propel Nigeria to a 70 percent digital literacy level by 2027.

Last year, NITDA and GetBundi Education Technology began a collaboration that saw GetBundi develop a digital literacy framework and implementation model in the six competency areas of the DL4ALL. As part of the collaboration, GetBundi also trained selected corps members under the pilot phase of the DL4ALL initiative. The corps were thereafter onboarded as Digital Literacy Champions and became NITDA ambassadors, training and sharing their knowledge in their primary places of deployment or assignment.

In return for the corps members’ support for DL4ALL, NITDA and GetBundi have now partnered to equip the corps members with three skill sets that will make them instantly employable.

NITDA’s DL4ALL initiative aims to train a critical mass of Nigerians in the informal sector in foundational digital literacy skills to equip them with the necessary tools to access and utilise online resources for education, employment, and financial services safely; protect themselves online from cyber threats and misinformation; communicate and collaborate effectively using digital tools; and develop the digital fluency required for many in-demand jobs.

NITDA had said the initiative would be implemented through a multi-stakeholder approach that would leverage the expertise and reach of a diverse group of actors from across the Nigerian landscape.

Earlier, GetBundi had also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) to empower students across federal, state, and private colleges of education with the right digital skill sets for tomorrow’s classroom.

The collaboration, aimed at training 2,900 students from 29 Federal Colleges of Education in advanced digital literacy and key skills like Graphics, Excel, Video Editing, and Digital Marketing in the pilot phase, was part of national efforts to attract more youths into teaching careers and build a sustainable educational system. It also signalled NCCE’s recognition of the critical role of technology in catalysing educational and personal growth of individuals, as well as the centrality of digital literacy and digital skills in achieving successful digital transformation in Nigeria.