How We Made World Class STEM Education Free for South African Youth

Did you know that less than 25% of African students in higher education are in STEM fields?

Sounds fake, but it’s true. In fact, most African schools don’t have the tools or resources necessary to incorporate STEM subjects into their education plan.

A strong STEM workforce is critical to Africa’s future; but with little to no opportunities for African students to develop essential STEM skills—or even discover a love for the STEM fields—less and less people choose a STEM career path.

It’s time for governments and organizations to step up and do their part in investing STEM educational resources and opportunities to students in Africa. It’s vital for Africa’s future.

At iNERDE, we believe access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education will create career and life-changing opportunities for students. Our mission is to inspire and empower African youth to learn the skills necessary to prosper in an evolving world and become a part of a sustainable and relevant workforce.

We are happy to announce that we are one step closer to our goal! We’ve partnered with Dell Technologies to create an all-new STEM After School Program for African youths.

Our STEM After School Program

Fully funded by the Dell Social Impact Program, our afterschool program is free for all who register. The program currently takes place at Waverley Girls’ High School’s solar learning lab, where computers, access to the Internet and educational resources are freely provided for students to use.

Our six-week curriculum includes 12 fun, collaborative, and hands-on activities that explores new STEM-related concepts. Our schedule looks a little like this:

Due to COVID-19, all program material for this year will be available in Google Classroom.

Looks cool, right? Decoding secret messages, extracting your own DNA and creating functional robots— sign me up! Each of our 12 activities consist of three parts:

  1. Students learn new information about a STEM topic through a presentation or reading
  2. A teacher will demonstrate the lesson with a guided practice of an activity or exercise
  3. Students will be assigned an activity or exercise to do on their own or with a friend

This process ensures students understand our content and retain their new knowledge.

But that’s not all our program has to offer, we’ve also added a virtual mentoring session once a week for the duration of the program!

Each student will be paired with a Global Dell employee who will help students understand basic STEM skills and also share advice, experience and expertise on various STEM subjects. This mentorship provides a way to for Dell employees to help empower youth for the future.  

It’s an incredible opportunity that you can’t miss!

Sign Up Today

If you’re a Dell employee looking for a volunteer opportunity to mentor a student in Africa, consider joining our virtual mentorship program here. This opportunity is exclusive to Dell employees for now.

We plan to expand our STEM After School Program to three additional solar learning labs across Africa in the future. If you are a company or organization interested in developing or sponsoring a program too, partner with us today.