Digital advertising firm, Aleph Group’s social initiative to create economic opportunities through digital advertising education, has joined UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition.

Formed in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Global Education Coalition was established by UNESCO – the United Nations agency dedicated to bringing people together through education and science – to bring together multi-sector partners to mobilise local, national, regional and global responses to ensure the continuity of learning. In 2023 and beyond, the Coalition has moved from pandemic response to focus on the transformation agenda, and aims to help realise the power of digital transformation, close the global educational gap, and support actions and investments for pilot projects that can be brought to scale at a national level in a sustainable way.

Joining more than 200 partners, Aleph’s Digital Ad Expert initiative – a skills-based education platform that provides students with the fundamentals they need to manage digital advertising channels and campaigns – will specifically support UNESCO’s Global Skills Academy, an initiative that aims to help 10m young people build skills for employability and resilience by 2029.

“As CEO and Founder of Aleph, I am incredibly proud to join this initiative to align with UNESCO’s ambitious plans to upskill 10m people by 2029,” said Gaston Taratuta, CEO and Founder at Aleph Group. “At Aleph, we believe that the provision of digital literacy is a fast track to helping local communities and economies unlock huge economic opportunities. Combining the experience of UNESCO – one of the world’s leading global authorities on digital literacy – with Aleph’s industry-leading expertise in digital advertising, the agreement will ensure people can confidently navigate the digital landscape, access greater employment opportunities, and help shape sustainable growth for generations to come. The learnings from this initiative will also aid the continued evolution of Digital Ad Expert, which we believe has the potential to become the world’s leading skills-based digital advertising education platform.”

Borhene Chakroun,  Director of Policies and Lifelong Learning Systems Division at UNESCO, added: We have witnessed the positive impact of the Digital Ad Certificate program in Grenada. This is a remarkable demand-driven example of UNESCO Global Skills Academy action in the Caribbean and we are excited to expand our efforts beyond. We look forward to creating similar opportunities in other countries, unlocking the potential of digital skills for economic growth and sustainable development.

To kick start its partnership, Aleph launched Digital Ad Expert’s Digital Ad Certificate programme with a specific cohort in Grenada. During the programme, which comprises several uniquely designed modules, students met virtually for four hours per week and had access to a wealth of online resources. Approximately 200 students from Grenada took the Digital Ad Certificate programme for three months.

In addition to education for students, Digital Ad Expert launched Train the Trainers – a bespoke one-month intensive training course – to upskill more than 50 digital advertising trainers in Grenada. Combined with Digital Ad Certificate, this will provide a strong platform that initially upskills students in the country and equips trainers with the skills and resources they need to maintain digital literacy over the long term.

The programmes offered by Digital Ad Expert and UNESCO in Grenada will provide an important opportunity to improve accessibility to digital education and, in turn, drive economic growth. As part of Grenada’s National Sustainable Development Plan 2020-2035 (NSDP), the national government is aiming to create a vibrant, dynamic, and competitive economy, which will – in part – be achieved through expanding training and building national capacity in digital literacy.

Over the coming months, Digital Ad Expert and UNESCO will use the learnings from activity in Grenada to evolve the pair’s cooperative agreement, which is targeting the launch of similar schemes in other countries.