Digital Incubator Bridging Guinea's digital divide

Aim: To improve young Guinean's access to digital skills, supporting them in employment by developing their business, software and coding skills

Twenty years of support and a track record of success

FCRS, has run successful projects that have improved the school environment and raised educational aspiration and outcomes, including setting up a science lab, installing WIFI and providing toilet facilities. Access to education has been increased through the menstrual health programme, 

awarding scholarships, 

and providing free school meals.

Having demonstrated the ability to raise money for, and successfully implement projects, we now want to provide a road map through education to employment and better livelihoods. Guinea-Conakry is one of the poorest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and faces many challenges for development including a stubborn digital gender gap, and limited skills availability for digitally enabled industries. Many of the most able feel pressure to migrate to find opportunities.

The Digital Divide

According to a World Bank report in 2024

“The minimal usage of mobile internet is a lost opportunity for inclusive growth in Africa. Closing the uptake gap would increase the continent’s potential to create jobs for its growing population and boost economic recovery in a highly digitalized world.”

The solution they suggest?

“A thriving digital economy, needs the presence of a sizable and skilled tech-savvy workforce that can build on digital advancements to drive innovation and productivity”Digital Transformation Drives Development in Africa, World Bank 2024

Introducing FCRS's Digital Incubator Programme

Our DIGITAL INCUBATOR will mentor students, provide access to digital skills, and help achieve better livelihood outcomes that support local development. Commercial partnerships will ultimately replace reliance on donations.

In 2023, we ran a coding taster session followed by an intensive 6-week software academy taught by experienced Guinean IT professionals, supported by senior industry experts. 

Throughout the following academic year, we supported IT teaching through after school sessions and IT training for CRS staff. Building on the success of these initiatives and in response to the obvious appetite for digital skills, we have scaling up to a structured 3-year programme. This will provide training, mentoring, a space for peer support, work experience, a pathway to work and ensure gender parity at all levels in the programme.

This rolling three-year programme creates a significant team of experienced well-trained alumni. We will use our network of contacts in the technology and business sectors to open-up commercial opportunities for the team. The uptake of these will help reduce, and ultimately replace donations to run the programme in the future and provide financial support for the school. 

Success in the first year of internships

As FCRS’s Digital Incubator project moves toward the end of its second year our first students to benefit from the Incubator programme graduate school and became interns. Since October they have been working hard honing their coding skills while teaching IT lessons at to younger pupils at CRS.

Three of the interns won places on a digital design course at the Orange Digital Centre where their teacher singled them out from the graduates and attendees from tech companies, as being the fastest learners and most capable students. They are now working on their final projects for their internship, a website for CAST, a feasibility study on the purchase of a school bus based on analysis of the travel needs of CRS students, and a period tracker app with menstrual health education and support sections.

We are now approaching the third year of our Digital Incubator Programme and can point to some strong indicators of success. 

400+ students are digitally literate 

20 staff have had IT training 

40 students have higher level digital skills 

20 students have learnt web development digital design and coding

10 young people  have worked as a team solving real world problems with IT

7 young people are good entry level coders 

3 young people are on the verge of professional careers in IT

Funding needs

So far the programme has been funded by individual donations from senior people in the tech sector, some of whom have also given their time and skills to mentor our interns. They will continue to support the programme, but we are now ready to   open the programme up to students outside of CRS and put a further 20 CRS students through the more advanced training. We are appealing for funds to deliver the next phase of our programme.

This August we will be running our third intensive summer school. The students who attended the first have had a year of of coding education while in Grade 12, attended a s second summer school and are now completing their internship. They have given back by teaching IT classes at CRS and will be instructing the second cohort of CRS students in this years summer school. In a first for CRS a second summer school will be open to non-CRS students. All students taking science in the West African Exam Council curriculum now have to study IT but almost none have access to a computer at school or home. They are taught a non-practical curriculum! 

 Sustainability

Our model is to ultimately not rely on donations but to develop a pipeline of talent that will take on the running of the Incubator. 

Last year we  proved this concept can work. The second summer school was taught by graduates of the first and our interns are training the CRS staff and will set up and run the third summer school. Each year as students emerge from the first two years of the programme they will teach IT in the curriculum and managing the IT lab alongside developing their coding and commercial skills. Our first cohort of interns has already taught IT throughout the school this academic year. They have developed their coding skills and will be ready to take on small commercial projects working alongside their teacher Mr Besmor Bah.  As they begin to earn they will pay back to the programme in recognition of the training they have received. A company will be set up to take on commercial projects in Guinea and for global partners that centre on their unique position on the ground in West Arica.

We have proven the concept and can see a route to sustainability. We now need a final push from donations to secure the opportunity to change lives through digital education, putting the youth of Guinea in the driving seat.

How will your money be spent?

• £6,000 laptops and desktops for the IT room
• £2,000 free places for students in neighbouring schools on our 4 week intensive digital skills summer school: hot meal and transport provided
• £20,000 to put 20 students through our 3 year Digital incubator programme: IT lessons after school in Year1, Summer school and follow up classes in Year 2, Internship, mentoring and advanced coding training in Year 3

Join us in our mission - every donation, small or large, will make a real, immediate and direct difference to the lives of these young people.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 2nd August 2025 at 9:33am