A recent report commissioned by industry, energy and healthcare outfit Siemens found that a potential R4 trillion could be added to the African economy by 2026 through the adoption of digitalisation in industrial sectors ranging from transport to manufacturing.
South Africa emerged as the country with the highest potential to drive this innovation. What lacked however, is the skilled workforce needed to tap into this market.
Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu, chair of the Datatec Foundation notes, “The vast lack of technical skills in the country is partly because of poverty among South African youth which leave millions unable to pursue secondary and tertiary education or training.”
Not surprisingly, many youth are despondent and discouraged by the lack of opportunities available to them to acquire skills through education and training. It’s this gap that the Datatec Foundation intends to fill, supporting various programmes across the country that can help upskill the youth and enable them to gain the necessary skills to become economically active through employment and entrepreneurship.
Get skilled free of charge
One of the initiatives supported by the Foundation is VMite, a non-profit IT training organisation with its roots in Uitenhage. It provides technology skills training to unemployed youth in the region.
“We had many struggles in our home town to set up a place for training. Eventually we found partners in PE who offered us space to work from at the Nelson Mandela Bay iHub at Kwantu Tours,” said Vusi Ncwadi, founder of VMite.
“We offer vendor-accredited programmes that are in demand in the IT industry which helps eradicate youth unemployment specifically in Uitenhage,” says Vusi.
“IT has pretty much disrupted every industry on earth from tourism, manufacturing to mining and even arts. So when someone goes through our training, they gain the opportunity to gain knowledge in the operation of IT systems, communication systems and internet security which is one of the biggest topics globally, especially with the increasing cyber-crime.”
Various programmes are conducted at VMite throughout the year and the duration ranges from 14 days to 6 months. These programmes are accredited by VMite’s vendor specific partners such as Microsoft, Cisco and CompTIA.
“We now are concluding a class for the Comp TIA A+ certification, basically a vendor neutral qualification, which is high in demand in the industry. The A+ certification gives the youth an entry level opportunity in the job market as IT 1st line support, IT administrator, junior network engineer and IT technician field services,” says Vusi.
At VMite there are 5 tutors who conduct hands-on training. These tutors are IT professionals who are certified and who participated in on-going instructor professional development provided by VMite’s academic partners.
“As from March, training will be free of charge for the next 6 months. We have an intake of 30 students minimum that we intensively work with throughout a period of 6 months. During this process students will be trained in a number of accredited certifications,” said Vusi.
- For more information contact VMite at 041 409 8600, Whatsapp 073 984 4711; e-mail vusi.ncwadi@vmite.org.za or visit www.vmite.org.za or on Facebook.
