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Africa Code Week 2016 to Tackle Continent's Digital Skills GapWALLDORF, Germany, May 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) will train more than 150,000 youth in 30 African countries this year to foster digital literacy and equip the continent's rising generation with job-relevant digital skills. Africa Code Week 2016, a program organized by SAP, will run October 15–23, 2016, with thousands of free coding workshops and online training offered to children and youth aged 8 to 24.  "Today literacy should go beyond just knowing how to read and write, even beyond digital literacy — knowing how to use computers. Basic literacy for the next generation should be about coding," said Jean Philbert Nsengimana, the Minister of Youth and ICT of the government of Rwanda. The Africa Code Week 2016 kickoff coincides with the World Economic Forum on Africa being held in Kigali, Rwanda, on May 11–13.* The World Economic Forum estimates that Africa's growth will be just below 5 percent this year as the global economy continues to suffer. The continent has the fastest-growing digital consumer market and the largest working-age population in the world. At the same time, African companies are scrambling to fill positions with employees who possess the right digital skills. Only 1 percent of African children leave school with basic coding skills. Africa Code Week 2016 workshops for younger age groups (8–11, 12–17) will be based on Scratch, a learning platform developed by the MIT Media Lab to simplify coding. Students will learn coding basics and program their own animations, quizzes and games. Those aged 18 to 24 will be offered a workshop called "Introduction to Web Technologies" (for HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, SQL), which will give them a basic understanding of typical website architecture while teaching them how to create a fully operational, mobile-friendly website. Africa Code Week 2016 will be organized by SAP and hundreds of partners spanning local African governments, non-profit organizations, NGOs, educational institutions and businesses including the Cape Town Science Centre, the Galway Education Centre, Google, AMPION, the King Baudouin Foundation and ATOS. "Coding skills are the basis to success in the digital economy," said Franck Cohen, president, SAP Europe, Middle East and Africa. "Africa Code Week is an impactful initiative to bridge today's skills gap in Africa, empowering young people for successful careers and equipping businesses for sustainable growth. We are proud to spearhead this initiative working together with hundreds of local and international partners from the public and private sector." The initiatve will run in Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Critical to the success of the program is the training of thousands of teachers, parents and educators across the 30 African countries. Between the kickoff today and the start of Africa Code Week 2016 in October, SAP will conduct thousands of train-the-trainer sessions to help prepare them for the initiative. In addition, access to online courses on the openSAP platform enables further scale and impact. 2015 Hugely Surpassed Expected Participation For more information on this initiative, visit Africa Code Week, or follow on Twitter at @AfricaCodeWeek. For more information, visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews. About SAP *Follow the press conference web stream from 12:45–1:15 PM CET by clicking at https://wef.ch/live. Jean Philbert Nsengimana, Minister of Youth and ICT, Government of Rwanda, and Andrew Waititu, Managing Director East Africa from SAP, will be at this news conference. For details please see the document Information on how to watch. Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates. © 2016 SAP SE. All rights reserved. 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To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/africa-code-week-2016-to-tackle-continents-digital-skills-gap-300266304.html SOURCE SAP SE 
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