A few months ago, we announced a high-impact training program targeted at increasing active female participation in technology entrepreneurship, especially within our community. On 22nd July 2014, this program officially kicked off.

Following an information session and a month long call for applications, we shortlisted 10 finalists who were admitted into the program based on the quality of their ideas and suitability for the program.

For the next few weeks, the ladies will meet every Tuesday and Thursday at Co-creation Hub to develop their technical and business skills. In addition to the training sessions, they also get access to their facilitator and our state-of-the-art facilities on days when there are no classes. This is to enable them practice what they have learned, improve on their ideas and collaborate with each other.

Cross section of finalists and facilitators on the first day of the Women RISE program

Week 1: Introductions and Program Overview

The first week was spent getting to know the participants and their facilitators. An overview of the program and expectations were set and by the following session, we jumped right into the technical side of the training. Beginning with an introduction to web development, our lead facilitator, Aderemi Okeowo, was able to enlighten the class and answer questions on what web development is all about, what developers actually do, and why knowledge of web development is an important skill to have as an entrepreneur.

White board, program overview, house rules and expectations

Week 2: Web Development 101 – A taste of HTML and CSS

With introductions out of the way, we got right down to seeing how web developers actually do their magic. We learned the fundamentals of web programming and by the end of week two, we were able to create a simple web page, identify and add tags to the web page, and do some styling with CSS.

Let’s take a dive into web development

Week 3: UX Bootcamp with SL Rao – Designing products users love

We combined forces with the UX bootcamp that took place at CcHUB from 4 – 8 August 2014), courtesy of Microsoft’s MySkills4Africa Initiative. The 5-day bootcamp was an introduction to User Experience Design using old-fashioned pen and paper, and powerpoint slides. Starting with team formation, all the attendees, including our Women RISE finalists, were taught UX concepts including user research, personas, scenarios, visual design, wire framing, prototyping and story telling.

The attendees were required to work in teams and on individual projects. On Friday (8 June 2014), the final day of the bootcamp, we had an exciting demo day where each team got to pitch their ideas.

The Show Continues

It’s week 4 now (how time flies) and we are making good progress with a few of the finalists even calling for extended sessions or more classes in a week. We’ll keep you updated on a weekly basis about what we are up to.

About Women RISE:

Women R.I.S.E is an initiative by Co-creation Hub, with support from Google, designed to increase the number of female technology entrepreneurs in Nigeria, thus increasing active female participation in technology.