Upskill is an initiative of Genesys Tech Hub. It’s design to help people with zero experience get their start in tech, teaching them valuable skills in front-end, back-end, product design, and product management.
In 2022, we noticed a big opportunity. Genesys' most popular program, Learnable, was getting a huge number of applications from complete beginners, even though it was designed for people with at least six months of experience. The application process for Learnable is tough, with both technical and oral interviews, so it was a clear signal that there was a need. My colleague, Goodness and I saw this and pitched an idea, got approved and formed a team.
We decided to build a program that was completely free for beginners. The UPSKILL program was a free 8-to-12-week online internship that gave people the skills they needed to get into tech. As an extra bonus, anyone who finished the program would get a discount if they wanted to apply for Learnable.
Our first edition, UPSKILL 1.0, was a huge success. We partnered with GDG Owerri and STAD, and for our demo day, we even had panelists from Google and Okra! We had over 200 people complete the program.
But the real magic happened with the second edition. UPSKILL 2.0 got so popular that we smashed our previous record, onboarding over 1,500 people, 5x the number of graduates from the 1.0!
You can see the impact the program had just by meeting some of the awesome people who went through it, like Parah, Paul, and Peace, who are now doing amazing things.
We had 4 of our past UPSKILLers who got into Learnable create a success story video for our campaign.
During my time on UPSKILL, I wore a few different hats. I was a Community Manager, keeping the community of UPSKILLers engaged through weekly town hall meetings. We also set up a mentorship phase where people were paired with mentors because we knew that was key to their growth.
I also worked as the Assistant Program Manager, which meant managing our awesome team of web and design facilitators who also served as mentors. I also made sure to do weekly check-ins with the lead UPSKILLers in their mentorship groups to ensure they were meeting with their mentors every week.
It was an incredible experience helping to build a program that filled a real need and helped so many people start their tech careers.