The network

You do not graduate from Emzini weCode.

Finishing a course is the beginning of the relationship, not the end of it. Alumni teach. Teaching assistants were students two cohorts ago. That is the staffing model, not a nice sentiment.

An Emzini weCode session in progress
Photograph supplied by Emzini weCode, published by Good News Network, December 2021.

Alumni

Everyone who completes is in it, whether or not they are visible on the site.

The network you are already in.

Completing a course puts you in the network automatically. It does not put you on the website: that is a separate decision and it is yours.

Your profile is yours
Private until you claim it with the ID on your certificate, and you choose exactly what shows. You can take it down again.
Your credential is checkable
Anyone can confirm it is genuine without asking us, and without your name being published. Try it.

Fellows

Invitation based today. Expressions of interest are held for when it opens.

Sustained mentorship, not another course.

A mentored cohort of alumni pursuing internships, graduate school and career moves, wherever in the world they are.

One to one, over months, with somebody who has made the same move. It is the part of the model that turns a credential into a job, and it is why alumni are at institutions and companies a long way from Bulawayo.

Teaching assistants

Paid, and selected from the cohort before.

Alumni are faculty. That is the design, not a slogan.

Our strongest graduates come back to teach the cohort behind them. It is the single reason the model scales, and it is why the person helping you was usually stuck on the same thing eighteen months ago.

Who we ask
People who finished, and who were the ones others in their cohort went to for help. Marks are not the main signal.
What it involves
Running sessions, marking with a rubric on Poseidon, and being available to a small group for a term.

Mentors

You do not need to be an alumnus, or Zimbabwean, or senior.

An hour a month is the most useful thing you can give us.

Not money, not equipment. Time, from somebody who has already done the thing a student is trying to do.

What it looks like
A call a month with one or two students. Reviewing a CV, talking through an application, or explaining what the job is actually like.
What we ask of you
Turn up when you said you would. That is the whole bar, and it is the one that matters most to a student.
Safeguarding
Mentoring anyone under 18 means our safeguarding rules apply and you are checked first. Read them.

Whichever you are

The house does not empty out.

If any of those four is you, one message is enough. Say which and it reaches the right person.