About Us
DirectEd Development Foundation (DirectEd) is a not-for-profit organisation delivering evidence-based, highly scalable and cost-effective training in coding and entrepreneurship to high-potential students right after secondary school around the world, starting in Kenya and Ethiopia.We give students all the soft -and hard skills they need to succeed as remote software engineers through our 3-part programme that starts with a mobile-phone online course and ends with a paid internship with a Western tech startup.
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Our programme
We are creating a impact pipeline with three steps.
Intro Course: an accessible 1-week-long remote course in Python, requiring only a mobile phone.
Bootcamp: an intensive 12-week full-stack coding using te JavaScript MERN framework.
Internship: during this 6-month-long segment, students build products for a tech company, specialise and receive entrepreneurship training.
We incorporate a range of evidence-backed elements from the behavioural research into our programme: growth mindset training, conditional and unconditional cash transfers, project-based learning and more.
Our Impact
After just 18 months of operations in Kenya and Ethiopia...
- 150+ students trained in basic coding through our intro course
- 40 students trained in our full-stack web development training
- 9x higher completion rate than typical online coding courses
- 50% of graduates in paid remote internships with Western tech firms within one month of graduation
Step-By-Step Process
1. Introductory Coding Course
We partner with top high schools in Kenya and Ethiopia. We then offer these students a free 1-week mobile phone-based remote coding course developed by us based in Harvard's CS50 Introduction to programming with Python.
2. Crowdfunding
To enable students who did well in the Introductory Course but who do not have a laptop and other resources needed to effectively participate in bootcamp, we run crowdfunding campaigns to finance Access Scholarships for these students.
Donations are made into Pools which can be earmarked for particular causes: alumni of a high school, gender or some other criteria. Access Scholarships are milestone-based meaning that they have to pass the monthly exams to continue to receive this support.
3. Bootcamp
After a merit-based selection process based on performance in the Intro Course, students enrol in a 12-week bootcamp. The BootCamp is free of charge and covers full-stack web development focusing on the JavaScript MERN stack.
4. Internship
Upon successfully completing our rigorous coding bootcamp, graduates interview for internships with our tech internship partners.
Stipends to support students through the internship
Specialization and advanced training
Tech entrepreneurship training
5. Employment
Once our students find employment as remote software engineers, we ask students to contribute part of their salary back to the same pool that financed their training, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of funding for future scholars.
DirectEd Lions Fundraiser
A Meaningful Donor Experience
The Lion symbolises stength, valour and leadership. Our supporters exhibit these characteristics, but so too do our students.The Lions Collection is our way of giving donors a small token of appreciation for their support.
A Phemelo Warrior
Sahara Mathil
Queen Dalia Teluji
Our Team
Learn more about our team & advisors
Follow our work
Find out more about our organisation, our team, what we do and read monthly project updates on our Notion page.
Contact
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