Black Girls in Tech unveils new cyber academy

Black Girls in Tech, a United Kingdom-based community aimed at improving women representation in the technology industry, has launched its brand-new cyber academy in partnership with Cisco.

The cyber academy announcement follows the second edition of Tap into Tech, the Lagos conference featuring high-level talks on cybersecurity, product, engineering, research and design.

Black Girls in Tech provides a sense of community and a safe space for Nigerian women in tech, while increasing representation for black women in the tech industry by making technology careers more accessible. It was founded by Karen Emelu and Valerie Oyiki, who today are the leads on partnerships and growth, and community, respectively.

They say with often limited resources to access upskilling opportunities, the cyber academy marks the continuation of their efforts to ensure that black girls and women in Nigeria are aware of the opportunities available to them and the skills required to begin and continue their journey in an industry that has the potential to transform the trajectory of their lives.

Members of the Black Girls in Tech community worldwide can now sign up to any of the self-paced courses and upon completion get industry recognised certification. The courses range from cybersecurity and networking essentials to programming languages like Python and C++. The courses are free.

Emelu says, “In our continued effort to serve as an educational resource for our community worldwide we are happy that we have the means to continue to engage our community by providing access to learning and training opportunities.”

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