“No! It’s not a class. No, it’s not a school either.”

The Task Force is a full-time training program aiming to bridge the knowledge gap of Software Developers” University graduates” or self-taught geniuses’ with profound previous knowledge of programming or designing. Due to the lack of possibilities of gaining production level experience besides working on own projects, the bootcamp is aiming to upskill the trainees in both technical and soft skill-related areas. 

The idea was born towards the end of 2019 when Awesomity Lab, our partner Startup onsite in Kigali, was in the midst of expanding their team and growing at a fast pace. They came to the realization that finding, interviewing, and onboarding a talented developer is not an easy task. Coincidentally, Code of Africa was going through the same challenges when recruiting engineers for their local entity in Kigali - with a focus on capabilities for working remotely in an international IT project environment.

To both parties involved, setting up a demand-driven curriculum by themselves was the easiest way to source talents and to upskill those in the Awesomity & CoA way of building cool sh*t stuff. 

Having run two cohorts successfully, and with Code of Africa becoming a member company of the Digital Skills Accelerator Africa e.v. in March 2021, this resulted in invaluable funding.  Being part of the DSAA enables us to run the training more frequently and better equipped than before. Currently, we are in the selection process for our 5th cohort already.

In this article, we will look at what happens after having joined the Task Force Bootcamp - by introducing two graduates, Guillan and James.

The TaskForce As Life-Changing Experience

According to the feedback we got from Bootcamp participants, for them “it’s a life-changing program”. The experience they gained throughout TaskForce allowed them to compete in the local as well as international job market.                                                      

                                        Meet James Nyagatare

James, a graduate from TaskForce 2.0  (our second cohort), is currently working remotely as a back-end developer for CodeLand, an Italy-based company focusing on Adobe Experience Manager Implementation:

“When joining the Task Force I had few skills both technically and professionally. During the Bootcamp I gained a tremendous amount of skills, I studied Java and Typescript from zero to mastery and built several secure APIs using both languages following all the best practices needed out there in the market.

Did you know that team communication is a key to success? Code of Africa helped me with that, teaching me how to communicate efficiently using all the different remote collaboration tools (Zoom, Slack, wonder. me, Miro, etc.), how to work in teams to build solutions, and how self-management leads to productivity. All these skills helped me to get my current job.

While working with Code of Africa and Awesomity Lab you feel like you are in a family and this is the thing I appreciated the most.

The Bootcamp for me was a stone that killed two birds at a time. I appreciate Code of Africa and Awesomity Lab for the opportunity and experience.”

                                        Meet Guillian Ruzindana

Guillian, aka Gigi, Task Force 3.0 graduate, has been hired as Junior UI/UX Designer for our local entity in Kigali:

“The Task Force was very insightful and educational. I learned a lot, like thinking out of the box and about real-life working conditions as a designer.

I also learned about the importance of team culture, which is the glue that holds a team together, and many other human skills that we most of the time think are not that important -  but in reality, they are the core of having a successful career, when combined perfectly with your technical skills.

I'm really happy to have participated in the Task Force, for all the knowledge I have gained through it - a fact that resulted in getting hired by Development AAS Limited as a Junior UI/UX  Designer.

Much appreciation goes to Code of Africa and Awesomity Lab for creating opportunities and empowering young techs.”

Summary

In short, the Task Force Bootcamp is not only about getting trained to receive a certificate but also to be seen as guidance for what skills are mandatory to build yourself a future in the (international) job market - just according to what Guillian and James stated: “This program was a life-changer.”
However, life is a never-ending learning journey!

It does not matter if you are still looking for employment or you have been hired already -  you have to keep the ball rolling! Especially the Tech World does not stand still a second.