M+E Daily

Atos and 01Talent announce the launch of a strategic partnership to support the acceleration of the digital transformation in Africa, by enabling the dissemination of a high-quality, innovative and inclusive training program on the continent.

01Talent’s ambition is to identify, train and connect one million high-level developers to the professional world by 2035. Through this partnership, 01Talent will be able to draw on Atos’ technological resources to support the many projects underway.

In order to complete the pan-African campaign designed to identify future digital talent, 01Talent, in partnership with the Didier Drogba Foundation and UCLG Africa (United Cities and Local Governments Africa), will rely on a technological platform developed by Atos to host cognitive tests.

These online tests will be mini-games accessible to all, requiring no prior coding experience. They will provide a measure of the cognitive skills, creativity and motivation of candidates, and to identify high-potential profiles who could not have been spotted by traditional education systems.

The students of the future “Zone01”, selected this way by the tests, will be trained for 2 years to become high-level creative “Full Stack” developers, with a job at stake.

Zone01 Cabo-Verde, will be the first “Zone01” collective intelligence zone on the African continent, and is scheduled to open at Praia Techno Park in Cape Verde, early 2022. 200 young talent from Cape Verde and from 26 other African partner countries will be welcomed in this “Zone01”and will be supplied with laptops by Atos. This first “Zone01” will be the foundation for the deployment of the education program which aims to create more than 200 “Zone01” on the African continent.

Atos will also mobilize its employees around the world through a mentoring program to share expertise and give personal guidance to the students.

This will give Atos an opportunity to create ties with Zone01 talent, and to hire many students during and after their training.

It has also been agreed that Atos will develop within the educational platform, a curriculum to improve and develop the skills of its employees, in immersion with the students of the future “Zone01”.

“With this partnership, we reaffirm Atos’ ambition to support the dynamics of the economic, social and environmental transformation of the African continent through training in digital skills. 01Talent’s particularly inclusive and innovative educational offer is a concrete expression of this ambition, and we are proud to be able to support its deployment. This is an important step in the development of a digital sector in Africa” commented Nourdine Bihmane, EVP and Director of Growing Markets at Atos.

“We are very happy to give life to a partnership that will allow us to support and integrate the most promising digital talents into Atos’ teams. Atos and 01Talent share the same values and the same goal: to develop human capital through an inclusive and sustainable approach in order to facilitate the digital and social transition of the African continent,” adds David Sultan, Vice President of 01Talent in charge of Global Operations.

“Atos in Africa is fully mobilized to ensure the success of the student selection campaign and to continue this collaboration over the long term. At a time when the continent is going digital, attracting talent is becoming a major strategic focus for our development,” adds Alpha Barry, Director of Atos in Africa.

After Cape Verde, Atos and 01Talent will develop their partnership with the opening of new “Zone01” on the African continent, in particular in Senegal.