Andela, a company that builds and distributes software, is set to let go 170 junior staff in Kenya and 250 others in Nigaria and Uganda.
In a statement, the firm illustrated a clear desire to engage senior software engineers to keep up with global demand for experienced talent.
According to Andela CEO Jeremy Johnson, the firm is under intense pressure to keep up with increasing global demand for high quality engineering-as-a-service.
‘’It has also become clear, however, that the majority of the demand is for more experienced talent, and to keep up with it, we need to grow our senior talent base even faster,’’ Johnson said.
He added that this is a challenge for the business, and for a junior engineer who want, and deserve, authentic work experiences that the firm is not able to provide.
Andela Kenya Country Director Janet Maingi downplayed the layoffs saying the firm is a community and that it will provide support to those potentially affected by a change in the organization’s structure.
‘’Change in an organization is not easy, but almost always inevitable to maintain performance and growth. We believe our most recent change in strategy positions us to be a stronger engineering organization,’’ she said.
To remedy the situation, the firm has announced plans to partner with CcHub in Nigeria, iHub in Kenya and Innovation Village in Uganda to help connect impacted developers with opportunities in their local ecosystems.
Together, they have identified over 60 companies who are looking to hire top quality junior engineering talent. These hubs will also offer impacted engineers the opportunity to use their co-working spaces free of charge for the next three months.
The company will also invest in the Andela Learning Community (ALC), which has already introduced over 30,000 learners from across the continent to software engineering.
Over the next three years, the company expects over 100,000 engineers from across the continent to take advantage of programmes within the community.
