Advance Africa Scholarship Program

Access Bank and Udacity has come together to provide 2000 Nanodegree program scholarships for people in Africa to build practical, in-demand, cutting-edge tech skills. The scholarship will create upskilling opportunities for scholarship recipients and give them the skills needed by many tech companies today.

Anyone 20 to 30 years of age and above is encouraged to apply. Scholarship recipients should be prepared to invest about 5–10 hours per week during the Nanodegree programs.

Business Analytics: This is an introductory program and has no prerequisites. In order to succeed, we recommend having experience using a computer and being able to download and install applications.

Introduction to Programming: In order to succeed, we recommend having experience using the web, being able to perform a search on Google, and (most importantly) the determination to keep pushing forward.

Programming for Data Science with Python: There are no prerequisites for this program, aside from basic computer skills. You should feel comfortable performing basic operations on your computer (e.g., opening files, folders, and applications, copying and pasting).

Product Manager: No prior experience with Product Management is required. You will need to be comfortable with basic computer skills, such as managing files, using third-party online programs, and navigating the Internet through an online browser. You will also need access to a video camera on a computer.

Digital Marketing: Students should have basic computer skills and be comfortable navigating online.

English is the language for the Challenge Courses and all Udacity Nanodegree programs. Subtitles are available in English for all three tracks. The scholarship student community will be managed in English.

The program takes place 100% online. Students can work from wherever they want to, as long as they have a working internet connection.

Phase 1: Challenge Course

20,000 Access Bank Scholarship applicants in the form of 3 rolling cohorts, will be selected to participate in a Challenge Course, with the third cohort beginning in May 2023. The upcoming third cohort cohort will consist of 10,000 participants. During this first phase of the scholarship, students work through one of the five initial Challenge Courses that comprise of course text, content and quizzes (no projects) for Business Analytics, Intro to Programming, Programming for Data Science with Python, Product Management, or Digital Marketing over the course of 5 weeks. Learners should be prepared to invest about 3–5 hours per week during this period. Challenge course recipients participating in this initial phase of the program will also engage with classmates in a robust, actively managed, student community.

Phase 2: Nanodegree program

2,000 students in the form of 3 rolling cohorts will be awarded a scholarship to Business Analytics, Intro to Programming, Programming for Data Science with Python, Product Management or Digital Marketing. The upcoming third cohort will consist of 1,000 full scholarships. Access to these Nanodegree programs includes expert project reviews provided by human project reviewers. Applicants should be prepared to invest about 5–10 hours per week for 2 months.

The timeline for Cohort 3 will be:

• Applications Accepted: May 9, 2023 - June 19, 2023
• Challenge Winners announced: June 19, 2023
• Challenge Course: June 22, 2023 - August 3, 2023
• Scholarship Winners Announced: August 13, 2023
• Nanodegree Scholarship: August 17, 2023 - October 16, 2023

After class starts, participants can study on their own schedule as long as they complete the course in the predefined time. That is to say, they will have complete access to the course directly in their classroom 24 hours a day. We understand that students have different schedules and will work on their course at different times and on different days. What’s important is that students make constant progress each and every week and get through all the content before the end of the course.

Udacity’s full technical requirements are listed here.

Udacity will evaluate the scholarship applications with a view to selecting recipients who possess the following.

Eligibility Criteria:

• STEM graduate or demonstrated evidence of strong interest in pursuing IT and Digital career
• Consistent access to a laptop
• Consistent access to strong data network and power supply
• Commitment to the time required for the program
• Must give pre-consent during application for Udacity to share data with the bank
• Bachelor's degree or higher is strongly preferred
• Between 20-30 years
• Applicants based in Africa from Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Gambia, Sierra Leone , Zambia, South Africa, Botswana, Guinea, Mozambique, Cameroun are strongly preferred

All applicants will receive an email notifying them of the selection decision."

Students will be able to choose from 5 different tracks. There is one application available for each of the available Nanodegree tracks in the program. You may submit more than one application, but we encourage applying for the track you are interested in. You can only be accepted into one track in the cohort.

An application may only be submitted once, and you will not be able to edit your answers once it has been submitted. To ensure the application process is fair, we cannot reset an application that has already been submitted.

Each Scholarship application will consist of two parts: background information and a short pre-assessment. The pre-assessment is unique to each ND track, and consists of questions to gauge basic computer literacy and logical reasoning. You may save your place in the pre-assessment and resume later. However, you cannot go back to a question once you have answered or skipped it. Please note: prerequisite knowledge in the program you wish to pursue is not needed to complete any of the pre-assessments!

Once submitted, you will receive a decision email.

2,000 students will be selected for the full Nanodegree scholarship based on:

• All the selection criteria used for the Challenge course
• Score in the Final Assessment

Though only 2,000 learners will earn the full Scholarship, all Challenge Course participants will receive an email with the selection decision notification.

The full Terms and Conditions are posted here.

No! The program is completely free to all scholarship recipients. Access Bank covers the costs.

Udacity will provide participants with all necessary information during the scholarship program. This will include everything from announcement emails, learning journey emails to next steps at the end of each stage. Emails will come from: scholarships-support@udacity.com or support@udacity.com.

A Udacity Nanodegree® Program is a unique online educational offering designed to bridge the gap between learning and career goals. You can earn a Nanodegree Certificate in this program if you win a full Scholarship to the ND program in your chosen track, and successfully graduate from the Nanodegree program.