Access to International Partnerships in IT (AIPI) is a partnership project between the Bundesverband IT-Mittelstand e.V. (BITMi) and Rwanda ICT Chamber. They are implementing a partnership project that is of great benefits to their respective member companies and both ICT ecosystems at large. Their mission is a strengthened Rwandan ICT ecosystem that contributes to the intensification of mutually profitable cooperations between Rwandan and German companies that promotes business locations in both countries.

The project sees itself as an eye-opener regarding African markets, which is one of many reasons why all cooperations and activities take place at eye level.

"We are convinced that both countries can learn from each other and thus create valuable synergies on both sides." said one of AIPI members.

The goal of this partnership is an increased number of jobs in the Rwandan ICT sector as well as improved international competitiveness and compensation for the shortage of skilled workers in Germany.

Achievements

● Internships: With the goal of creating jobs, 5 interns have been given internship opportunities through AIPI partnerships with hosting companies. Companies include
Hview tech, Shora Ventures and Dtravela. With the aim of turning internships into jobs opportunities.
● GS1 Workshop: Together with the experts from GS1 Germany, more than 20 manufactures and producers from different companies were hosted. The main objective of this workshop was to raise awareness about international standards (GS1) and how GS1 Rwanda can be set up.

● Tech Upskill: AIPI has launched a competition program of Tech Upskill. The
program was focusing on the new/existing talents and innovators in ICT and
engineering related fields covering both software and hardware development.

● iSQI trainings: Through AIPI project iSQI (International Software Qualification Institute)) the market leaders in software qualification offers certifications recognized internationally after completing two phases of trainings (CTFL and TMAP). AIPI iSQI certified 50 beneficiaries, in order to be able to compete and to expand their own portfolio to an international level.

BAG Innovation is a for-profit organisation, created four years ago which aims at increasing its impact in Rwanda and East Africa by providing an experience-based learning model to students across the region. This is achieved by extending the experience-based learning model to all University students in Rwanda and East Africa, which would reach ​more than 4,000,000 students and recent University graduates. The team at BAG has extensive knowledge and understanding of student development at universities and this has placed us in a unique position to help graduates match their skills to roles and companies.

The primary beneficiaries of this innovative project are university students and postgraduates in Africa. BAG innovation partners with the University of Rwanda which is the biggest university in Rwanda to roll out the developed technology with all their students starting in May 2021.

Key Results

BAG is incredibly honoured to have been recognised by the African Union as the best Education Innovation in Africa. Today BAG has impacted over 8,000 young people in Rwanda and assisted 600 to get meaningful employment opportunities with an 80% success rate. The goal is to reach over 10,000 new users by the year's end and to expand to students in the rest of the African region by 2022.

Over 8,000 students connected, meaning the student’s profile which showcases skills and attributes has been exposed to employers in Rwanda.

160+ Businesses started

600 Job placements

15+ Universities partnered with

Awesomity Lab started Working with Bag innovation from 2019 and it has been a very insightful and rewarding experience. We believe that Bag is the modern solution to the unemployment gap that is here in Rwanda and soon East Africa.

Visit: Bag.rw, Nepad article

More of our clients: Awesome clients

first of all I will start by mentioning how my entire time in school I was always (read ALWAYS) the youngest of my class and all of a sudden I am the oldest guy of the cohort....how times change, ok now onto the experience.

Week one was an amazing experience, we started off by playing a strategy game, lets just say it didn't go so well, then came a session with Lionel about writing good user stories. my main takeaway was how crucial it is to write good user stories for software development teams. Then came codewars challenges, which only proves as a software engineer you can run as fast as you can but you won't outrun leetcode challenges. We also had a session about intercultural communication which highlights how while working in international setups cultural differences and values could make things tricky if not paid enough attention.

I was also introduced to few collaboration tools I had never used before (miro,trello) and I can see why they are so popular, they make collaboration, project management much easier and inspire to get visually creative.

To cap off an amazing week, we had our first presentation and formally introduced ourselves to Awesomity Lab's team and vice versa, they proceeded to beat us at a game they had just introduced us to (which is not exactly a welcoming gesture but whatever😄)

Overall I had fun in week one and I can't wait for week 2 :)

Also how cool is my team TASKFORCE 4.0🤩

By Hugues Ntwari

The UI/UX team which is the leading team learnt how to create mockups and see how the mockups get implemented by the developers. Seeing them realize that their design eye is a bit different from the developers' eye and that as UI/UX designers it's always going to require them to take extra steps when it comes to being more specific while creating mockups because not every implemented idea is obvious to the developers. Another important thing that went well during this journey is how they always managed to deliver their assignments on time 👏even though the timeline was a bit tight (which is good). Lastly, I appreciated  the way they were all open to feedbacks no matter how they were, and how much they are always willing to learn new practices to improve their deliverables.

In conclusion this was a very insightful and yet fun experience with these two ladies during this bootcamp and seeing them grow and taking up a huge responsibility of leading their fellow team mates really showed me that the UI/UX future is bright.

The Task Force is Awesomity’s effort to develop a solid and talented pool of software developers and product designers right here in the heart of Africa. So far we have had two taskforce bootcamps and now we are on phase 3.0.

The Bootcamp helps us instill our culture and standards in the next generation of developers who in the near future will join our team or COA’s.
In Taskforce 3.0 we have 9 participants and we are super excited about how they are working so hard every day towards their goals of becoming experts in their fields.

Paradis is one of the talented people that we have and she is one of the two and only females designers that we have on taskforce 3.0 ( How cool is that 🔥).
Here is what she has to say about this bootcamp.

" I am happy with the improvements I am seeing so far. My very first take from soft skills is that the actual presentation takes less than 7% of the whole success of the presentation and this is something that was new to me. Second is I didn't realize how much empathy can contribute to an effective communication, the communication  session shed more light to me about this matter.

On the technical side, I learnt more about user stories and how helpful and impactful they are towards developing a good user interface by understanding things through the user’s perspective, I’ve also learnt how to formulate properly user stories, so that they can be more precise to the functionality itself. What was more of a challenge was completing the user story’s exercises and challenges in so little time but I managed to also put in a little bit more efforts.

I was also introduced to the developer’s world a bit, and  the whole process was new to me but it was interesting to learn some technicalities and how they affect the whole process in the end.

During this bootcamp, we also get to experience some relaxed days, where morning sessions are about values, those sessions are interesting because we often don’t realize what we know about ourselves until we pause and reflect on it, those sessions are more a reflection and it is also nice getting to know more about the team and CoA’s values.

That is basically it for the soft and easy part😂, because what mostly follows is more of a rollercoaster, as part of our weekly technical challenges we get to create mockups that match a project we have to come up with based on functionalities we are given, hilarious huh?🤣 Normally it’s the project first but this time nahh.

This is a challenge because it’s not the usual way we do it, we sometimes don't even know where to start but we eventually find our ways, this allows me to think of certain functionalities as a main part of the project’s success not just as add ons.

Briefly the past weeks were more intense, more challenging but again more fruitful. On a personal level I feel like I’m improving and I can’t wait to see what the next weeks have in store for me😅. "

By Paradis Isimbi

Let's get started

Before understanding Software Dev at Awesomity, one must first understand Software Development itself.

What is software development

Here is the definition from Wikipedia

Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting,
testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other
software components.

Obviously, the Wikipedia definition is a bit complex so I will put it in simpler terms. Software development is a set of steps where one person or many people try to come up and create a solution to a problem, challenge or difficulty; that solution coming in a form called a package called a software. A software is a set of instructions that is given to a device (computer, smartphone, etc...) and tells the device what to do & how it should work. It's kind of similar you giving someone very clear instructions on what the person should do & how to do it.

The processes included in software development are long but in a nutshell; they are all serving a purpose of understanding what the software should do, how the software should look like, what will be used in order to build the software as well as creating the software and making sure it works the way it should.

There are different types of application software, and ALOT of them. You can take a look at them here. Chances are that you are using an application software to read this article right now, your web browser.

Develop Software... how do you do that?

Using Programming languages

If you have no idea what a programming language is, think of it being a bit similar to languages we use like English or Kinyarwanda; the similarity being that they both serve the purpose of communication. Speaking languages help us communicate instructions to each other while programming languages help us communicate instructions to computers. There are many programming languages and developers don't always agree on every programming languages

So, what programming language should I learn & use?

Any language you want

Pretty much any programming language can be used to create software. With that said, not every language is good at writing every type of software, some language are good in only specific types of application software. For example, You might want to build the next big social media mobile app for iPhones; there's a programming language you can use that works better than others in that case.

Alright, so what language do YOU use at Awesomity Lab?

It depends...
Like we explained in the section above, different languages work best for different use cases. We use languages based on those use cases.

• For software that will run on web browsers we use HTML, CSS & JavaScript; which help us provide beautiful and interactive interface to our users. This is called the frontend side of the software
• For software that will run on smartphones we use Java, Swift & TypeScript; Which help us provide a smooth mobile experience to smartphone users.
• Naturally our users will most likely also use our interfaces to store and manipulate data, this data has to be given to them through a central hub called a backend. We use Java, JavaScript & TypeScript for our backends. A backend does more than just data manipulation, to not make this post longer than it is here is a post explaining front-end vs backend

Conclusion

This was probably a long read. But there is a lot more into how Awesomity Lab makes software; we can only give you the gist of what we use to build them. Moreover, things change; so does software development. This means that we might have a change of which languages, frameworks & libraries we use based on what is the best choice for the use case. Hope we could give you some insight and if you have any more questions feel free to contact us at <<team@awesomity.rw>>

We constantly see how much the people around us have a great impact on us especially those who have been able to cross the limits that you have not yet been able to cross but that you would rather cross and go beyond. I believe that everyone will love that his model guides him in the path in which he took to reach his goal. Not only the people who have taken as models but also people with more experiences .. people who can guide you ... we all need someone who gives us advice about different decisions that we want to take ... this person then is called a mentor.Many people have them but they hardly realize it.

Having a mentor can be beneficial and fun since you get to share different life’s experiences. Here are some simple facts that can make you understand better about having a mentor:

• increase your skills whether in job or outside the job, adaptability, salary and self-worth, through advice's that your mentor provides for you.
• shows you the great and unexpected benefits of having a mentor and how you’ll feel comfortable — both at work and in your personal life.
• You’ll stay in demand. Your mentor — knows how to adjust to certain environmental changes , and they’ll show you how to do the same. By learning new skills and making the right changes, you’ll stay being the strength to your firm.
• if it’s in a job field, it will be more than a job title because that’s not the only thing that defines you. All your skills , potential and passions are not revealed through your job only. Your mentor will learn in which field you are strong in and help you plot your career path, spot personal development opportunities and even help you find a job you’re better suited to.
• You will feel happier and more comfortable at work. A mentor is not just there to have fun. They will help you improve your career and become more competent in your work. When you feel at ease in what you do, you will feel happier in your work and your personal life.
• You’ll become a better YOU. Your mentor is the office equivalent of that person who reminds you to get back into line when you behave inappropriately. By showing you the reality plus your strengths and your weaknesses, he or she will help you be mindful about yourself, respect people around you more and become a better team player. In short, they’ll help you build your character.
• You’ll keep on learning. Most people will tell you they have a mentor, too. The benefits of having a mentor don’t stop when you reach to your goals. You’re never too experienced or high up to learn from others.

Nowadays professionals consult mentors to better practice their careers. And whether you're on the side of giving or receiving, mentoring can benefit your career. Mentoring can be beneficial to both people, personally and professionally. It’s an open bridge to opportunities like developing communication skills, building your social relations, and contemplate new ways of dealing with different situations. And through that both the mentee and mentor can proceed their careers in the process.

Why do we need them? Well some people may think it’s time wasted but from my experience, there is no better way of tracing your career path than starting an internship.

• By starting early on to sharpen your professional skills, you will gain pragmatical experience and learn how to do your job well, rather than the theories we get from universities… University learning can only take you so far. But only your willingness to learn new things and your passion can make this journey less of a hustle.
• You get a chance to work in one of the companies in your field. Spending a few months getting to know a company, and be familiar with the working routine of the company. The work expectations will put you in a good position if you ever want to start working for the same firm, or a similar one, in the future. If they liked your work, they’ll be more likely to hire you than someone that they haven’t worked with before.
• You’ve got to show your potentials. Though academic records may say a lot about your capabilities, employers prefer to choose candidates that have some experience that is relevant to the position they are hiring for. An internship gives you the opportunity to take on tasks that will be expected from you at your future job and help you have vast knowledge about different things through learning and the freedom of thinking out of the box and give broad ideas as well.
• You may be recruited to work full-time. An internship is the chance to prove yourself as a hard-working, intelligent and capable person. If there is an entry-level position available, as an intern you are definitely in a competitive position to be considered for the spot. In fact, the firm will be more comfortable hiring someone who is familiar with how the company is run, like an intern.
• You’ll grow your network of professionals. A major advantage of an internship is that you’re able to network and strengthen relationships with working professionals in your field. Keeping those professional connections alive can be useful for anything, from career advice to a job recommendation. Moreover, having a circle of friends within your career field is a good support group for you when you’re down.
• Your confidence in professional environments will improve. Although it takes time to learn all the company norms that your firm follows. Once you learn how to conform with them, you’ll learn how to relax more at an office and focus more on excelling at the work itself.

Internship is a great way to test a job and a career path. When you commit to work for a certain amount of time as an intern, you know all the nuts and bolts of your career of choice. So once you are offered a permanent position, you will know what it takes to succeed at your new position. Happy Hunt.

Lancelot Sheja in charge of communication at Awesomity Lab.

With all this said, like many different things we get to see or deal with in our everyday lives, internet has some good and bad effects, let’s first go through some bad effects mostly seen in the usage of internet which are:

• Lack of empathy because of violent scenes on internet,
• There are information that the internet provides and since everyone can access that information, kids get to see things that they are not meant to see at their young age,
• Much use of internet makes people so dependent to the info provided by the internet that they don’t get enough time to use their imagination or to read and think deeply about the material.
• There is also a difficulty to develop the social skills and the emotions because of too much time spent on the internet.

short, we are digital natives and we obviously cant change a thing about it… This new generational digital divide is only to grow. But despite the negative impacts that tech can bring to young people there are still positive impacts too to be considered. Which are as follows:

• An excellent educational research and learning tool with the advancement of e-learning, and virtual encyclopedias.
• A frontier breaker that allows you to open up to the world and discover new cultures.
• Easier communication with the rest of the world.
• A way to relax with its many forms of distractions.
• It’s also a platform for innovation and creativity.

Finally, one of the difficulties for adults facing these new technologies is to keep pace of innovation in this area. As the majority of the African youth master all these advances very quickly, adults find difficulty adapting.

It’s a matter for adults to recognize humbly and see an opportunity rather than a risk.