The Learnaholics Academy (TLA) Africa has launched its Women in Leadership Scholarship for Young African Women. It is a fully funded and strict application scholarship program for Young African Women who are passionate about learning, growing and leading.
According to Deborah Benjamin, Spokesperson of the Women In Leadership Scholarship Board and Director, TLA School of Leadership in her welcome address during an online Press Briefing to highlight the purpose of the program, the prospects for African women and the society and the progress in planning, she mentioned that the Women In Leadership Program is an highlight of the School of Leadership, a subset of The Learnaholics Academy.
The programme was birthed to raise African women who are inspired, knowledgeable and passionate enough to take on Leadership roles in the social and corporate space as well as represent the female gender equally in all sectors of Impact and development.
It is an annual conference that trains women who are 18 years and above from across Africa, on corporate governance, Community Leadership and pro-activity.
The program is scheduled to hold for five weeks in a closed WhatsApp group and facilitated by seasoned Social Entrepreneurship and Leadership Coaches and experts.
The Learnaholics Academy is a personal and professional development oriented institution, established to raise the bar in helping people create values that shall propel their personal and professional life. The Academy adopts both physical and electronic classroom learning mechanisms to accommodate prospective students far and near. With aims to be an outstanding academic environment where lives are transformed through education and each individual is valued, TLA Africa devises scholarly and innovative accomplishments in personal and professional endeavors
The Women In Leadership program was proposed on the 1st April 2020 and was subjected to scrutiny until it was approved for implementation. The Academy's Centre for Counselling and Human Development (CCHD) and the School of Leadership was directed to manage the program until a Board was formed on the 8th of April 2020 to manage the program.
The Board is an 11-man membership with 7 females and 3 males. According to Mr Tunbosun, the females serve the Implementation unit of the Board while the Males Monitor and Evaluate its activities
The members of the Board are Abimbola Dasola (Board Chairperson), Abayomi Adeola (Deputy Board Chairperson), Adeleye Deborah (Board Secretary-General) and Benjamin Deborah (Board Spokesperson). Other Distinguished Members of the Implementation Unit of the Board are Faith, Adeosun Eniola Mary and Doherty Precious.
Also, the Adhoc Members in charge of Monitoring & Evaluation are Mr. Essang Rawlings Myles, Mr. Olalekan Olatunbosun , Mr. Ajani Oluwakayode and Mr. Yusuf Olamilekan
According to reports from the press briefing, E-application forms for the Scholarship opened from 13th May - 23rd May 2020 and later extended it till 7th June 2020 with applications from across the continent including Africans in Diaspora. Applications were recorded from countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Morocco, Angola, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Benin, Afghanistan, Netherlands, Bangladesh, among others with about 75% of the application from Nigeria.
In review of the application results, 49% of the applicants hold leadership positions, 49.8% of the applicants do not hold leadership positions (but plan to) and only 1.2% of the applicants do not hold a leadership position and do not plan to.
A deeper review of applications shows that, most women in leadership are not necessarily there because they want to, many of them just want to prove the male wrong about their perception of them in leadership while some just want to challenge the status quo. Also, the fear of discrimination holds many of them back from attempting leadership in a male-dominated society.
According to Mr Olalekan Olatunbosun, ''it is hoped that at the end of the program, a non-toxic confidence is instilled in them to build effective leadership consciousness in them.''
The Director also mentioned that the training content was designed to visit the history of black women in leadership and peculiar problems they have faced as these problems are intertwined in contemporary leadership efforts of women,
The women in leadership Scholarship will also cover Business, Politics, and other areas women can be adopted into leadership.
TLA Africa started in September 1st 2017 with over 3,000 students and have organized several trainings and certified about 289 persons with Certificate on Proficiency. About 418 persons have received badges and certificate of participation in various short crash courses. The organisation has also organized physical trainings at Ijebu Ode, Ago Iwoye, Ile Ife, Ifo and Lagos while her online classroom is specially hosted at www.thelearnaholicsacademy/eclassroom for global participation.
The Learnaholics Academy functions with School of Law and ethics, School of Health, School of Tech and ICT, School of Leadership and School of personal development. Each of these courses have different materials and directors on ground. Also, the materials are the general Content so it is easy to facilitate offline Classes with the same resources
On the restrictions to Africa, Mr Tunbosun restated that Non-Africans CAN NOT APPLY. In his words, ''one of our brand messages is Empowerment for Africans by Africans However, for Africans in diaspora we make extra effort to confirm their indignity. We are out to empower Africans. And this time, it is strictly our women!
While this Cohort admitted 250 participants only, Application has closed and will be reopened by August 15. Interested participants are advised to apply here