Hamisi’s insights into the Google IT Scholarship Certificate Program.

Through the first scholarship program by African Development Bank; Coding for employment program, I have been able to sharpen my IT professional skills by navigating further in the particular dynamic IT field. For instance, the program has shade to me some light on the course; “Software Development Fundamentals,” where I was able to cover a variety of topics which included, Object Oriented Programming, web application and desktop applications such as windows application, console based applications like the command-line driven applications and windows services applications. The knowledge I have acquired will definitely play a key role not only in the trade project am preparing to do in my final year in school, but also in the future when I will get employed or even for purposes of solving emerging problems in my community.

In addition, the program has enabled me to interact with several other students in the world who are also under the umbrella of the same program. I was able to improve my interpersonal skills with other students from different parts of the world and also share my ideas and concerns.

Iterating on the same idea of interaction, I also got a chance to virtually interact and meet highly experienced instructors who took me through the learning sessions. They actually gave me an illusion that I was attending a normal physical class that made me pay the maximum attention required as I also enjoyed the lessons. They demonstrated the practical parts of the lessons with high professionalism which played a significant role in my content retention. Thanks to all instructors involved!

Ignited by my strong thirst for knowledge, I went ahead to study another course on “Data Science.” Here, I was able to learn in a detailed form, all that it takes to be a good data scientist stepwise from data organization to data analysis. This has not only prepared me on dealing with data on any corporate environment and day-to-day work, but also has instilled in me the confidence to deal with data of any size, howeve big and complicated it may seem to be.

In the second scholarship program provided by Google organisation, I was able to learn various courses such as; Technical Support Fundamentals, System Administration and IT Infrastructure Services, IT Security: Defence against the Digital Dark Arts and Operating Systems: Becoming a Power User.

I was also able to learn how file systems work and how to assign different user permissions and roles which is a super important task in any IT support role. In addition, I was also able to learn about process management to solve valuable time when troubleshooting in the work place. 

Due to my descipline, hardwork and being self-driven in the program, I got a chance to be selected as a volunteer Program Support Lead of the Kenyan team by Aiducation International Organisation (through GYLA) in conjunction with Junior Achievement Kenya, a role which I received with both hands.

As a volunteer program support lead, my roles have been to encourage and make follow-ups on beneficiaries of the program under the umbrella of Aiducation organisation. I am also incharge of all the arising communications to be passed to my members from the Junior Achievement Organisation. In addition, I also write and send weekly reports on the progress of my members concerning the particular program to Junior Achievement Kenya. This has enabled me improve my communication skills, leadership and ability to facilitate teamwork.
 

Pictures taken during a meeting at the JA building, Nairobi garage

Nevertheless, the gist of this entire program is the presentation of a globally recognized IT certificate after a successful completion of a particular course. This does not only add to my C.V the weight to become a “hot cake” in future when looking for a job, but have also added me more professional merits.