The Ouut Spotlights Univelcity As The Tech Academy Clocks 6 Years

Various instances and events have occurred, recognizing Nigeria as one of the countries across the African continent that have produced a significant amount of tech professionals in the ecosystem. They have individuals who have won highly competitive competitions, raise funds from international tech contests, and many more. They have built quite an interest across the continent and even across the world.

Yet, just like every child was born, without prior knowledge of skills or art, Nigerians definitely had to learn their skills in technology. To achieve this, many tech schools and colleges had to launch in the country, providing quality education, a platform for enlightenment and access to development.

One is these educational institutions is Univelcity.

Univelcity is an educational institution focused on training, developing and accelerating talents in technology within Nigeria, and eventually across Africa.

This institution has been offering quality education to Nigerians for quite a while. Recently, Univelcity celebrated it Six years anniversary, celebrating years of outstanding growth as an institution and developments within its immediate community.

Founded by Joseph Agunbiade, the post-launching period of the academy commenced in 2016, and it officially launched in 2017. Since its inception, Univelcity has been offering courses in different fields of technology, some of which are  Product design, Fullstack Sofware Development, Ethical Hacking and many more.

While speaking with The Ouut, Univelcity’s Growth Marketer, Ogunboyowa Samuel,  gave a few insights into the academy’s progress since its inception.

” Over the years, we’ve been able to help youths and young adults transition in life, giving them a platform to acquire quality skills in technology. In the last 6 years, we have produced about One thousand-two hundred (1,200) graduates.”

While discussing the drive and passion behind the institution, Samuel noted that in years to come, the world will be technology-saturated, providing a lot of job opportunities. Currently, Univelcity is building an army of talents from Africa, that will fill in these gaps, they will be able to work efficiently and provide solutions in whatsoever department they occupy.

So far in Six years, the academy has produced talents who are making waves in the tech ecosystem within and outside Nigeria, the likes of, Ada Nduka Oyom, Chukwuka Ezeoke, Odutayo Odufuwa, Timothy Omotayo, amongst others. They are excelling as a result of Univelcity’s provision of quality education.

“These days, we do not need to spend so on much advertising ourselves, we are now known for our quality service that we get a lot of referrals. Students who have been in the academy and employers who know the worth of our students after they are through, now refer people to us, either to employ our graduates or to impact an individual, this is because we are more conscious of the service we offer, we give people value for their money and they know,” Samuel said.

There is no doubt that growth is fascinating to see, it’s just like the joy felt when a flower blooms, yet it wasn’t all burst of colours and freshness of scents from the onset, this also applies to Univelcity. It wasn’t all speed and recognition at first.

Talking about some of the challenges the academy faced as it grew, Samuel noted that” We’ve also had a couple of challenges, also in the aspect of gaining traction, once upon a time, there were less than five to ten students in a class learning a skill. In the initial period, there wasn’t a lot of interest in tech in fact we were spending a lot of money and doing a lot to get people interested in tech skills to no avail. But over the years, things have changed, and the sporadic increase in the number of people willing to learn a tech skill has scaled us. also, consistency was key for us, as we kept offering quality education, increasing our values likewise reviewing and refining our system till it was perfect for us, even though efforts were not showing off”.

In a bid to have a developed community growing with the institution, the academy has revealed its involvement in several corporate social responsibility activities. In recent times, especially during the university staff strike in Nigeria, the academy gave out discounts on courses to encourage learning, and on occasion, less privileged students are given full scholarships to learn tech skills for free.

Partnerships and Achievements.

Univelcity’s growth has definitely been obvious, from traction, and referrals to aiding its community, the institution’s endeavours make its footprint on a rock. Still examining the growth of the academy, in the last six years there have been notable partnership deals the academy went into, such as partnering with Skillup Africa, to provide educational loans for students who can’t pay for the classes outrightly. This partnership funds the student’s education while they pay back once they are employed after the completion of their education.

There is also a partnership with Handshake Innovation, an Indian tech academy that specializes in tutoring students in revolutionized technology such as Web 3, VR/AR, Metavarese and the like. This is so as to keep Univelcity’s courses up to date with current activities.  The institution has also been able to achieve the launch of its kids’ coding program, where children are taught coding from a younger age, boosting their familiarity with the language of technology.

In the 6th Year

In this sixth year, the institution has revealed that it has set out some goals for its continuous growth. One which stands out is its plan to engage in activities that will help it meet up with traction demands. Unlike its nursery years, Univelcity now has a high demand for its services, whereby applications are coming in beyond its physical capacity, so a physical expansion within and possibly outside Lagos state is in view. There are hints of a major development to come but the institution seems to keep it on the low, till significant actualization occurs.

“We are delighted and very happy about the incredible result we’ve been able to produce over the last six years, it might seem small but for us, the result has been massive, especially in terms of the value we’ve given to people, we have seen lives changed and transformed, people walk into our institution and in a short period, they begin to do well for themselves and their family, we are glad to be able to make an impact in the country. For people that are still doubting the relevance of owning a tech skill, we want them to understand that this is the future. Right now every industry is talking about the future of work and in other to maintain job security in the nearest future, owning a tech skill is key. We are delighted and glad, we look forward to offering more value to people, and we are open to opportunities, partnerships and more exciting events to come,” Samuel concluded.