Rinchi
TechInAfrica – Andela is an African startup company found in May 2013 that headquartered in New York City, United States. It connects African qualified developers with U.S startups, including Cloudflare, Headspace, and SeatGeek. According to its CEO, Jeremy Johnson, the company is planning to take advantage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to its recommendation engine in order to improve matches for talents as well as employers.
The plan will be the company’s major focus this year and expectedly, will perform training on its existing data. Johnson explained that his startup generally has 60 different assessments in the application process. Both, with the data and the recommendation engine, it will examine the placement location and who are qualified to join Andela.
Previously, developers had to pass a competency assessment test if they want to be accepted in joining Andela. Only one percent or less of applicants are accepted by the system. However, with the new system that involving AI, it is targeting to process assessments of around 130,000 applicants. After passing the application examination process, the developers will have to participate in a six-month course.
The main idea of Andela according to the CEO, Johnson, is to employ qualified software developers without having to leave their countries. Through their selective processes, Andela is sure that they provide the best talents for their clients.
For beginners, the recommendation engine will use existing data to train more than a thousand developers who already have completed the training and worked for over 200 high-growth organizations.
Andela facilitates developers with soft skills training because the company finds that they work remotely. Therefore, in order to match with remote teams, the company ensures that these developers will participate in some training.
The company currently has operation offices in several African cities, including Accra (Ghana), Cairo (Egypt), Kampala (Uganda), Nairobi (Kenya), Lagos (Nigeria), and Kigali (Rwanda). With the indications of AI growth in Africa, the company intends to incorporate it in its system to match up with its expertise.
