Bits Design Academy
What Are Bits Schools?
The Bits Academy Program is a one year hands-on training in the field of ICT and multimedia, where skills in web development, web and graphic design are imparted on the youth. The skills make talented young people capable designers and developers in the vibrant ICT industry in the region of the Bits school. Entrepreneurship training supports them to become freelancers and entrepreneurs in their own right. Additionally, the training is blended with life skills which help the youth deal with the most immediate challenges they face in their lives.
The Bits Academy Curriculum
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Web Design
Learn how to design and develop websites and provide site maintenance, The different areas of web design include web graphic design, user interface design (UI), standardized code and proprietary software, user experience design (UX). A web designer is concerned with how a site looks and how the customers interact with it.
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Graphic Design
Graphic design is a part of our daily life - anything from humble gum wrappers to massive billboards to the T-shirt you’re wearing. Graphic design informs, persuades, organizes, stimulates, identifies, attracts attention and provides pleasure. Students learn how to harness this skill for communication, using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
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Motion Graphics
Learn how to capture video with a camera and how to edit with Adobe Premiere Pro. Create video in a team and organize a screening for an audience. In the animation module, students learn different animation forms and experiment with creating a unique motion graphic in Adobe Premiere Pro.
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Web Development
Students learn web programming and how. to build interactions on web pages. A web developer focuses on how a site works, functionally, and how the end user get things done on that site. Students learn how to program CGI and scripts like PHP as well as how to write mark-up languages.
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Entrepreneurship
The entrepreneurship training engages trainees by using exercises, video clips, and case studies to clearly explain and break down complex business skills. Students gain useful skills, including how to research their market, how to develop an effective sales pitch, and how to obtain start-up funds.
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Life Skills
This course is designed as a first step toward helping to prepare youth seeking entry-level jobs for the workplace by developing the skills and knowledge that are essential for success. Entry-level job seekers may enter this pipeline through a number of referral mechanisms.
HargaBits
HargaBits is a youth-based social enterprise that uses ICT multimedia creatively to improve the lives of less privileged youth from the non-formal settlement, and is co-founded by Shaqodoon Organization in partnership with Oxfam Novib. The target population for HargaBits is the youth from the informal settlement areas of Hargeisa, which is a significant portion of the society. These youths are faced with many socio-economic challenges that hinder them from progressing in life and making a meaningful contribution to their societies. Since HargaBits was established, we have seen over 600 students graduate from our all-year course, both through donor-funded programs and through our paid programs. The success of HargaBits can be attested by our graduates, 70% of whom have either gained employment or become self-employed or established business upon completing their course.
422
Youth equipped employability, entrepreneurship & digital design skills
70
Students educated each year
80%
Placed into jobs where they are using their digital design skills
10%
Started their own business
GaroBits
GaroBits is the first technical vocational skills training center that uses ICT multimedia creatively to improve the lives of less privileged youth from youth in Puntland. GaroBits was established on the success of HargaBits Academy, which has been running divers ICT-related skills for youth in Somaliland since 2016. With the support of EU-RESTORE program, funded by World-Vision, European Union (EU), and SIDA (Sweden), Shaqodoon established GaroBits in 2020. The school has saw eighty-four students graduate with graphic design and web-development training in its first year.
99
Youth equipped employability, entrepreneurship & digital design skills
50
Students educated each year
65%
Placed into jobs where they are using their digital design skills
10%
Started their own business
MogaBits
From the success of the HargaBits paid program initiative, the income generated has gone into setting-up MogaBits in Mogadishu - the capital city of Somalia. The ICT lab has been fully equipped with 20 all-in-one PCs and will have three paid program classes, which we aim to serve 120 students per year. Students will have a variety of courses to benefit from, including Graphic Design (which covers advanced graphic design, motion graphics, business analytics, advanced excel sheet, data visualization, data analysis, and digital marketing). Anyone who wants to get into programming will be equipped with programming language applications such as HTML/CSS, Javascript, PHP language, Python language, Android and iOS apps development, Laravel framework, bootstrap framework, GitHub platform, Database MYSQL, and Microsoft SQL.
HargaBits, GaroBits, & MogaBits - News and Updates
International Digital Design Education
In 1999, Butterfly Works was founded with the launch of the first Bits School: NairoBits. Owing to the level of success, the concept has been replicated to similar settings in other countries. Together we developed a digital design education franchise model, called the Bits Academy. It has resulted in the launch of many more schools based on the model including in Uganda, Pakistan, Nigeria, Somaliland, Ghana, Tanzania and Ethiopia.
