Emerging app developers have been advised to take their education into their own hands by taking advantage of free online tutorials.
The call was made by Chike Maduegbuna, Chief Executive of FCO Limited, developers of Afrinolly and Naija Places, in an exclusive interview with HumanIPO in Lagos.
“The truth of the matter is that all this stuff is in tutorials on YouTube. And as a company that’s how we grow. We train ourselves and we encourage people. Sometimes we go to schools, pick up interns and start teaching them,” Maduegbuna said.
According to him, app developers ought to be conscious of the change environment and he encouraged serious app developers to get the necessary materials and begin self training.
“Times have changed, there are loads of information out there that all you need to do is grab them and start working with them,” he said.
He added that self development makes teaching easier because the student has already grasped the required foundational knowledge leaving the teacher able to go ahead and build on the student’s meticulous knowledge base.
“First and foremost, it separates you from the rest of the pack. It makes it easier for anyone that wants to build on top of that to guide you to actually mentor you and it becomes easier for you,” he said.
He described as unfortunate his company’s past experience with training young app developers who were only interested in getting certificates instead of adequate training.
“We had loads of interesting experience when we did a training programme for Jim Ovia Foundation. There were lots of people there hoping to get a certificate; they were not particularly interested in the practicality of what was going on. And it became obvious that it is something that is common with people around here.
