SAP's Skills for Africa programme kicks off in Cape Town

The latest chapter of the programme involves local SAP customers and partners including Accenture, Shoprite, Pick n Pay, Zimele Technologies, Consnet, UCS and the City of Cape Town, who share an interest in promoting economic growth to develop a platform for sustainable job creation in the region.

A press conference was held on Monday at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) - a member of the SAP University Alliances programme - to officially mark the kick-off of the orientation programme for the first group of Western Cape SAP Skills for Africa students. More than 350 graduates applied for the programme and after rigorous review and interviewing procedures, 44 students were finally selected.

In addition to the start of the orientation process at the beginning of a twelve-week intensive training programme, the students will also be trained in the MIT Scratch software coding methodology to enable them to act as trainers for another SAP skills development initiative, Africa Code Week - which is the largest literacy coding event organised on the African continent.

Skills development for economic development

“As digital skills are critical precursors to the growth of developing economies, Cape Town is committed to collaborating with our private sector partners as we continue to build on this legacy by empowering our youth with technical skills. As such, I am incredibly proud to be here today as the City of Cape Town in collaboration with SAP Africa offers employment to 15 graduates with highly sought after technical qualifications,” commented The City of Cape Town's Mayoral Committee Member for Corporate Services and Compliance, Councillor Xanthea Limberg.

Lawrence Kandaswami, managing director for SAP South Africa added that there are many education and skills development initiatives that have been introduced across Africa over the years, but what is key is to link skills development to job creation through internships - resulting in jobs for these talented individuals.

“In a developing economy such as ours, a digital education isn’t accessible for all. What we see is a cavernous gap between the education that young people are receiving and what the employment market needs. Critical to the success of the SAP Skills for Africa programme is collaboration and we are delighted to be partnering with Western Cape business and government through this exciting initiative.”