General Electric and the Africa Leadership University (ALU) have announced the kick-off of the 3rd round of the Africa Industrial Internet Programme (AIIP). The programme is aimed at equipping young Africans with skills that will enable them to take part in the fourth industrial revolution.

35 students from 8 countries across Africa are participating in the 2020 program. They are drawn from the oil & gas, transportation, power, energy, manufacturing, healthcare, telecoms and aviation industries. Over the last two years, the rigorous training programme has graduated 64 students, of which 50 were fully sponsored by GE from a scholarship fund totaling US Dollars 500,000.

Launched in 2018, the program has empowered participants with essential skills for building applications for the Industrial Internet, which enables machine-to-machine communication that results in systems that can collect, analyze, and deliver data in real-time. These features provide significant benefits such as predicting when a device will require maintenance, enhancing logistics management, enhancing quality and optimizing safety.

"As a digital industrial company, it's exciting to see how over the last two years the AIIP has developed an ecosystem of digital engineers that utilize data science as an enabler for their work across industries," said Farid Fezoua, President & CEO for GE Africa. "Our partnership with ALU for the AIIP is a testament of our commitment to developing the next generation of leaders that will drive solutions made in Africa for Africa in this transformative digital age."

"African Leadership Group is thrilled to be partnering with GE to build a new generation of digital leaders for Africa," said Fred Swaniker, Founder of African Leadership Group, which includes African Leadership Academy, African Leadership University, and ALX. "We share GE's passion for data, and what it can bring to the African continent and the world."

Source: Africa Tech