THE Kayode Alabi Leadership and Career Initiative (KLCI) has launched Skill2Rural, an ed-tech platform designed to provide life and 21st-century skills training to young people in underserved and displaced communities.
Founder and CEO, Hammed Kayode Alabi, according to a press release made available to Youth Matters, shared that KLCI has been nurturing this idea since 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when in-person programs were halted.
“During that period, we created an online audio resource to ensure young people continued accessing relevant information and developing key life skills,” said Alabi. “We reached over 1,200 young people and realised the potential to reach even more by leveraging technology.”
He disclosed that the challenges faced during the KLCI’s in-person bootcamps, particularly with facilitators struggling to reach the communities they serve, led to the creation of pre-recorded sessions, funded by the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Programme Enterprise Competition.
These sessions, he added, have reached thousands of young people across ten states.
Recognising the broader potential of the programme, the KLCI launched the skill2Rural.org platform with funding from the Western Union Foundation Fellowship, powered by the Watson Institute.
The release added that educators can register on the platform to use the resources in teaching key life and 21st-century skills in an in-person classroom setting, adding that the platform also allows young people to register directly and access modules and quizzes at their convenience.
“In just 24 hours of our soft launch, we already have about 50 users, and we aim to grow through partnerships,” Alabi noted. “We have partners in Accra, Ghana, ready to use our resources to support young people in underserved communities.”
The statement added that “KLCI’s goal through Skill2Rural is to reach at least 1 million young people across Africa by 2030. The initiative will continue running in-person boot camps to complement the ed-tech platform, fostering co-creation of innovative solutions, mentorship, and connecting the young people we serve to opportunities.”
It also quoted Alabi as saying, “We will keep learning from the young people we are designing for and hope this platform empowers them to pursue their dreams.”
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