Budding entrepreneur? eLearnAfrica might be for you

Starting your own business with zero experience or knowledge can be difficult. Fortunately, online education platform eLearnAfrica has announced its new marketplace for online education, which includes several SME-related courses.

The SME courses offered through eLearnAfrica, range from customer service skills from itSM Mentor or a course on starting your business through the University of Leeds.

Students across Africa can enrol in these online courses to obtain degrees as well as professional certifications in their pursuit of more SME knowledge.

eLearnAfrica aren’t doing it by themselves, however, together with edX and FutureLearn, are providing a wide range of other courses to a predominantly African audience. The non-profit edX, founded by Harvard University and MIT, makes courses available from top-ranked business school Wharton University as well as University of California, Berkley University and many others.

“We are delighted to collaborate with eLearnAfrica. We are deeply committed to edX learners on the continent and have a partnership with The University of Witwatersrand, a first of its kind collaboration between a major MOOC provider and an African university,” said edX CEO and MIT professor Anant Agarwal in a press release to Ventureburn.

“Our work with eLearnAfrica will help further the edX mission to increase access to high-quality education for learners in Africa and around the world,” continued Agarwal.

In order for students to progress through to their next class, they’ll be graded and tested on the work they’ve learnt. Using online resources such as video learning and many others, students have the opportunity to be adequately prepared for their next class.

eLearnAfrica aims to tackle learning obstacles through their website and mobile application

Most of these courses are offered free of charge whilst others which deliver a verified certification of completion are offered at a moderate admin fee.

One of the partners, FutureLearn offers more than 4.5-million learners free access to online courses from specialised centres such as the British Council, Creative Skillset and European Space Agency.

Head of content at FutureLearn Nigel Smith, commented on the new partnership. “We’re very pleased to be one of the launch partners for eLearnAfrica. Although we are UK-based, 70% of our learners are based in countries outside the UK and with our mission to pioneer the best social learning experience for everyone, anywhere, eLearnAfrica is a great partner for us.”

“As an educational platform, eLearnAfrica offers opportunities to African students at every stage of higher education and career development, with courses from the world’s best universities, including full degrees, vocational training, and industry-standard professional certifications, said CEO of eLearnAfrica, Brook Negussie.

“We set out to combine local knowledge with long-term global expertise through partnerships and academic excellence, to bring the best in the world to Africa in one easily accessible marketplace,” Negussie concluded.

Featured image: Shawn Campbell via Flickr