JONES'S STORY  

I am originally from Malawi and recently moved to Selma, Alabama in America.

Before the Digiskills Africa Programme, I was a Masters student at the University of Zambia. I was pursuing an MSc in Biomedical Science majoring in Tropical Infectious Diseases, Zooneses, Health Sciences and Bioinformatics.

Before my Masters, I was a lecturer at Malawi Adventist University and soon after I joined the research industry and I was working for ICAP Malawi, an organisation which is under Colombia University. We were doing HIV impact assessment in Malawi. This was a government initiative, where they wanted to see the effects of HIV on the population so they could provide drugs etc.

I have a biomedical Science Background, so I was teaching in areas of microbiology, immunology and microscopy.

Then, I wanted to move into the digital world of science, so I am pursuing some short courses in the digital space.

The first time I heard about the Digiskills Africa programe was through my friend who was studying for the same Master as me. As a science student, I love to learn about new things. I wanted to transition into the realm of data sciences, I saw she attended a big data school funded by SARAO and this caught my eye. And this is how I came across the programme and because I wanted to learn more about big data and the digital transformation of the pharmaceutical industry, I applied.

The DigiSkills Africa programme is very impressive, I would rate it 9.5/10. One of the objectives I wanted to achieve was to learn about big data. I also wanted to understand how I can apply the knowledge that I have and learn new skills, all of these were achieved throughout the programme.

The travel grant was a bonus, being a student I didn’t have to struggle to arrange transport, which was a huge advantage for me.

We had several speakers throughout the workshop, The Irish ambassador was very encouraging. We were told what programmes are in the pipeline, and what we should expect in the future for the digital transformation of the pharmaceutical industry.

The programme gave me a huge advantage not only in my scientific and digital skills but also in my CV and interview preparation. We learnt how to improve our CVs.

The session with Sandra, who has over 16 years’ experience in HR was the reason for my success.

The CV session and understanding the expectations of the job market was a game changer for me. I attribute my current success to the skills I gained from the Digiskills Africa programme. The nitty gritty details that were highlighted has given us a different face that I present to the industry today. I used what I learned in this session in my scholarship application.