AltSchool gets $1m to expand in Nigeria, across Africa
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
AltSchool has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to expand training of junior to mid-level engineers for diploma certificates in partnership with tertiary institutions.
The Nigerian startup is an online school with a curriculum to upskill non-technical people with both technical and soft skills.
The money will be used to build content and curriculum, technology infrastructure, and a community for students to meet offline, network, and learn together.
AltSchool CEO Adewale Yusuf said one may need a first degree to be a doctor or nurse but this is not a requirement to be a software engineer.
“We need to find a shortcut for people, whereby they will be able to make money and provide for their family and add value to the economy.
“That’s one of the reasons we launched AltSchool because if a lot of people can have marketable skills, then I think we can solve a massive problem in the market,” he said.
A secondary school certificate and computer literacy are the requirements for participation, according to him.
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Course completion
“We realise that the most important thing is skills. We genuinely want to give people the skills. And we know that not everybody that passed the assessment will make it to the end of school, nor are they better than those who failed,” Yusuf added.
“We’ll create a situation where if some can stick to the end of this semester, we’ll find a way for them to complete the programme,” Yusuf added, per Nairametrics reporting.
Background
AltSchool was founded by Yusuf, Akintunde Sultan, and Opeyemi Awoyemi. It provides courses on product, blockchain, and data.
It is exploring B2B partnerships with private schools in Africa, using AltSchool’s curriculum in their classes, and plans to launch product modules, including product management, marketing, and design by the second quarter of 2022.
Altschool adopts an income-sharing agreement (ISA) model which allows students complete the programme and get hired after which they pay a $500 fee in full or in installments over five months.
The startup said it may soon adopt a subscription model where students pay between $20 and $50 monthly for the duration of their programme.
It accepts students from across the African continent.
