The tentative name is The Hub portal and academy. A platform for learning bioinformatics and open science, mainly aimed at serving high school leavers and life science college applicants.
- Laurah Ondari
- Ken Mugambi
- Gladys Jerono
- Karega Pauline
Hol’ up, before you get into the details of what we’re trying to achieve, here’s a quick summary
If you’re here we assume, you’re looking for details. So here goes…
According to research by Hooker, (2017), there is a shortfall of five million scientists and engineers, while more than 80% of students are enrolled in social sciences and humanities courses. The current investment in STEM education is through academic programs such as TVET which does not necessarily lead to employment because it is a supply-side initiative (African American Institute, 2015). According to experts, Kenya must increase its STEM investments if she wants to have a middle-income industrialized economy by 2030 and this applies to the rest of Africa at large. Moreover, there is concern over the gap between the scholastic achievement attained by university graduates and the actual competencies required for employability in industry. This has resulted to the issue of unemployment, confusion and dissatisfaction among university graduates. This project aims to narrow the gap between science students and the needs of industry through proper guidance and mentorship to guide postsecondary students into the STEM career funnel and upskilling undergraduate students to fit the needs of the industry through workshops, seminars and academy services.
During this project, we hope to create an integrated resource that caters to post-secondary, undergraduate and postgraduate students in science-aligned courses.
✔️ Our proposal for post-secondary students
Our website hopes to be a one-stop solution for course information. In Kenya, the STEM field is one of the most respected and enviable fields to get into. However, it is also one of the fields that has the least mentorship for young and upcoming researchers. This problem tends to be most evident in the first few years after admission to higher education institutions when students encounter difficulties that include dissatisfaction with the courses they have chosen and consequently a lack of intrinsic drive to continue to pursue these courses. Our website aims to ease the course selection process by making available information about courses, universities in which they are offered, starting salaries for people in similar careers, organisations and institutions where one can find work opportunities after graduation etc. In the future, we hope to partner with career counsellors and coaches that will further benefit students in the career selection process.
✔️Our proposal for undergraduates
According to studies (Kumwenda et al., 2017; Science Education in Kenya Ochong O’kelo, n.d.) lack of mentorship is cited as one of the challenges young African students face in their career development and urges the establishment of mentorship programs to help in this instance. Most science students go through their science education not having the necessary information about what it’s like to be a biological scientist, whom to look up to, or what options exist to consider for their career trajectories (Problems Facing Young Scientists in Kenya, n.d.). Furthermore, a survey conducted by KamiLimu data survey showed that up to 73% of students in technology don’t receive consistent mentorship outside the classroom. Using the data, we can extrapolate that the situation is the same for other STEM courses. Our services therefore will encompass upskilling undergraduate students to ensure they are industry-ready once they graduate. On our website we include resources especially for biological science students that can help beef-up their skillset so as to stand out during job searches. We also provide information on institutions for industrial attachment and internships to kick-start their career.
✔️Our proposal for postgraduates
Coming soon… but in the meantime, if you’re interested in bioinformatics, check out
We recognize the crucial part mentorship and upskilling play in creating holistic scientists. Our portal and academy provide career and course information and resources to help life scientists upskill as they climb the career ladder. This is like no other in East and Central Africa and is designed with postsecondary, undergraduates and postgraduates in mind.
To create a platform for dissemination of science and research knowledge and skills to post-secondary, undergraduate and post-undergraduate students through tailor-made curricula and training
- To disseminate bioinformatics and research knowledge and skills to post-secondary, undergraduate and post-undergraduate students
- To offer research guidance and assistance to interested parties (case herein guidance to students and assistance to corporates and postgraduate students undertaking projects)
- To offer mentorship and training programs
- To sensitize communities towards open science and reproducible research
A few things will make this a success:
- Collection of resources that contain life science information i.e. university websites, scholarship resources
- Physical working space
- learning material/ open curricula
Our primary stakeholders are students who aspire to or are already in science-aligned courses. These are whom our portal and academy is designed for. To reach them, we need the collaboration of schools and universities who will provide a platform for us to pitch our idea, resources and services. Secondarily we hope to reach postgraduate students who are interested especially in bioinformatics. Our portal is rich in bioinformatics resources and the academy is set to help you understand the material. Our founding team comprises bioinformatics scientists vast in genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, drug discovery, and mathematical modelling, among other areas of bioinformatics. Their expertise is testament to quality teaching and data analysis they provide. Therefore, students are welcome to explore our portal and academy. Postgrad students and organisations seeking to upskill their staff in bioinformatics are welcome to check out our services.