Hackathon in Progress! The hackathon is the culmination point of 3 months of training where our students are split into teams of 2-3 and create a fully functional website using the skills they have learnt about javascript, html, css, php and sql. This year they also put into practise the new skill of AI prompt engineering to help them write code.
The challenge make a car rental website. The results, the best we’ve seen so far! The scores were really tight with the winning team winning by a margin of 3 points separting the top from the third place. Can you guess the winners from below:
Hackathon in Progress! The hackathon is the culmination point of 3 months of training where our students are split into teams of 3-4 and create a fully functional website using the skills they have learnt about javascript, html, css, php and sql.
This year the challenge was to create a hotel booking website, a task created in co-operation with the local hotel that donates the space where the students study. The students blazed through the task with dedication and enthuasim, creating amazing and realistic hotel websites.
Students presenting their work to the Judges
“These were some of the highest quality entries we’ve seen in the years we’ve done the hackathon and a very close score.” - The Judges
Our Autump bootcamp has begun. Students will be learning Javascript and PHP over the next few months culminating in the hackathon where they show off the skills they’ve learnt solving a real life problem.
Daniel who runs Alvathek our teaching provider said: “It’s really exicting seeing the course in progress and students teaming up together working on solutions!”
Our latest batch of students graduated today. It was a great ceremony celebrating the achievements of the students over the last 4 months. This graduation marks 180 students who have been taught through The Back Home Project and Alvahtek who has taken over as the delivery partner in Nigeria. Our work is changing lives one line of code a time.
The Programming Bootcamp held from February to June 2024 aimed to equip students with essential web development skills. This comprehensive training program focused on practical, hands-on learning and culminated in a week long hackathon.
You can check out some of the work the students did in the hackathon here:
Feedback from students was overwhelmingly positive. Many students expressed that they found coding enjoyable due to the tutors’ friendly approach, which made learning engaging and fun. Testimonials highlighted their excitement during the Hackathon and their desire to continue improving their skills.
On 30th December 2023, 13 of our alumni gathered in our training venue (kindly donated by a local businessman) to catchup. The teachers Michael and Daniel were also in attendance. It was encouraging to hear 8 of them have gone on to further education and the knowledge they’ve learnt with us has been put to good news.
Some of their stories:
Michael: “I have been working on couple of projects, my first project was a game app, I recently finished an e-commerce website for a client, of recent I’m working on a school management system, I’m also planning on developing a website for my department in school” – 2022 set
Patrick: “Since I graduated, I got a system and I’ve been working on so many projects. When I got to school, I was working for my lecturer – creating his portfolio.” – 2021/2022 set
Peter: “With the knowledge I’ve gotten, I’m currently working on an e-commerce website” – 2023 set
Abigail: “Knowledge gotten was of benefit to me in school when topics on computer was being taught” – 2021/2022 set
Samuel: “Knowledge I got has helped me teach my brother and others who are studying computer science.” – 2021 set
It’s officially the end of Summer (in the UK) and our 2nd batch of students this year graduated today. It was a truly uplifting event celebrating their achievements: The energy, enthusiasm and gratitude of the students is hard to to put into words.
The Ceremony was led by Lt. Col Edward Mark (rtd.) and the local pastor who gave speeches about the importance of the skills the students have learnt in a tech driven world. The students also had a chance to share their experiences on the course.
We invited along friends and family to celebrate this special occasion with them, and enjoy the catering we put on them (because a party isn’t a party in Nigeria without good food!).
Our thanks go out to:
Daniel, Michael and Samuel from the Otukpo Tech Academy for teaching the course. Micheal and Samuel are ex-students of the course so it’s amazing to see them passing on their skills now to a new batch.
The local pastor for mustering the community to support us
The local hotel owner who has kindly let us use their venue for free
Our volunteers Chris & Emmanuel who gave up over 20 hours to support our students hackathons and group projects! 🙂
Daniel (the Otukpo Tech Academy Director) annoucing the winner of the best student award
Students presenting their work to the Judges
