Decagon becomes 1st talent accelerator to become a GitHub partner in Nigeria

Decagon, a software engineering institute founded by Chika Nwobi, is now a GitHub Partner School. This makes Decagon the first Nigerian talent accelerator to become a GitHub Partner and one of eight GitHub Campus Partner Schools in Africa.

Decagon is a software engineering institute ushering in a new phase of tech-powered growth and prosperity in Nigeria by training and deploying an army of leader-developers. With a project-based curriculum, agile delivery methodology, mentor matching, and leadership modules, Decagon seeks to transform any fast learner into a world-class software developer in just six months.

Being a GitHub partner school, Decagon students can have access to the best software tools and resources at no cost. This way, they are able to leverage the resources for their projects and can build portfolios good enough to attract potential employers, amongst other things.

GitHub is arguably one of the most widely used software development tools in the world. It enables individuals and teams to collaborate and effectively manage projects, encouraging developers to contribute to open-source projects. Beyond the technology space, GitHub is now being used as a collaborative tool by individuals across varying professions – artists, builders, and even entire companies.

GitHub was developed by Chris Wanstrath, P. J. Hyett, Tom Preston-Werner and Scott Chacon using Ruby on Rails, and started in February 2008. It was acquired by Microsoft for $7.5billion in 2018.

As of May 2019, GitHub reports having over 37 million users and more than 100 million repositories (including at least 28 million public repositories), making it the largest host of source code in the world

Here are some of the benefits for students at Decagon.

Every student gets a GitHub Student Developer Pack. This developer pack grants them access to a plethora of developer tools and resources at no cost. With free domains, powerful APIs, and a bunch of learning resources, Decadevs can explore the power of these tools and identify innovative ways to use them. Here’s a list of some of the tools you’ll find in the Pack:

• GitHub
  A Powerful collaboration, code review, and code management tool. Our students get unlimited free private and public repositories
• Microsoft Azure
  A cloud computing service created by Microsoft for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and services. Our Students get $100 credit with free Azure for Students account.
• (dot)Tech domain
  .tech (dot tech) domains are helping startups differentiate their brand and scale in more ways than one. Our students get one .TECH domain free for 1 year.
• SendGrid
  SendGrid provides a cloud-based email delivery service that assists businesses with email delivery. Our students get 15K free emails/month on the platform.
• AWS Educate
  AWS Educate provides tools for students around the world dreaming of a technology career. Our students get access to the AWS cloud, free training, and collaboration resources.
• Namecheap
  Namecheap is an affordable registration, hosting, and domain management service. Students get 1 year domain name registration on the (dot) me TLD, as well as 1 year SSL certificate.
• Frontend masters
  Whether you want to learn professional JavaScript, the latest framework like React and Vue.js – Frontend masters offers resources to bring your skills to the next level! Our students get Free 6-months access to all courses and workshops.
• Stripe
  Stripe software allows individuals and businesses to make and receive payments over the Internet. Our students get waived transaction fees on the first $1000 in revenue processed.
• Pushbots
  A scalable, reliable service for sending notifications out to application users, including those who use iOS or Android devices. Our students get a free Premium account for 6 months.
• Mailgun
  Powerful Email APIs that enable you to send, receive, and track emails. Our students get 20,000 free emails and 100 free email validations each month for up to 12 months.
• Intellij (Jetbrains)
  Jetbrains offer Professional desktop IDEs: IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, and more. Our students get a free subscription which will be renewed annually.

Decagon students are eligible to become GitHub Campus Experts, affording them an opportunity to learn public speaking, technical writing, community leadership, and software development skills. They also get to receive training and mentorship from GitHub employees.

Today, over one million Teachers and Students around the world use GitHub to accomplish their learning goals.