Gijima invites students to submit innovative app ideas

The initiative aims to encourage and support students to be innovative, develop entrepreneurial skills, empower themselves and become leaders in the ever-growing trend of mobility. This crowd-sourcing model encourages collaboration and enables top-rated ideas to emerge. The winning ideas will be taken forward and developed for Apple's mobile products.

Participants will attend workshops facilitated by experts from Gijima and associated partners. In addition to developing coding skills, participants will expand their business and technical management skills under the mentorship and guidance of Gijima staff through an incubation process.

All the events lead up to a Code Jam weekend when the developed apps will be showcased and the winners selected.

Education, innovation and research

Gijima and the University of Western Cape have a strategic partnership to contribute towards three key areas: education, innovation and research. The "jamming session" is one of the initiatives of the partnership, aimed at igniting a new generation of technology producers who not only consume technology, but also create it. Research shows that in developing markets more and more people are adopting mobile technology because it is suitable to their specific circumstances. Africa, for example, has 649 million mobile users but only 110 million Internet users.

The coding session touches on the innovation and education aspect of the partnership. Professor Louis Fourie of the University of the Western Cape's Department of Information Systems said: "We were influenced by the University of Aalto in Finland, in terms of designing the partnership between us as a university and the private sector - hence the three components. A university must be a driver of innovation in the country and that is closely linked to research. The intention is to help students develop the level of skills and understanding what would be needed in a modern organisation - which includes the education. Our department aims to ensure that students will be able to make an immediate difference in the organisations they join after completion of their studies."

A pool of talent

A benefit of the partnership is creating a pool of talent that the industry can draw from, for the future. Basha Pillay, innovation team leader at Gijima said: "Organisations are always requested to make meaningful contributions, but do not necessarily have the capacity to invest that much in skills development, which is the core of a university's business. We utilise students coming from universities into our business to contribute towards the success of the company, so this is a mutually beneficial partnership."

CEO Jonas Bogoshi's vision is to leave a legacy by contributing towards the country's development and competitiveness. "He believes that companies should not only be concerned about profit, but should take responsibility for the development of the broader society," said Pillay. "This initiative provides Gijima with the opportunity to use our strength and expertise as an IT company to contribute meaningfully towards the development of students. The competition is not only open to IT or computer science students, but to anyone who is passionate about developing mobile applications and technology."

In the longer term, the initiative seeks to provide youths with access to technology and skills development, but, more importantly, to empower them and foster an entrepreneurial spirit.

Students with the most practical and innovative applications will go into an incubation programme, while selected successful apps will go onto the market where participants can earn revenue for their efforts.

Students interested in taking part in Code Jam can do so by registering on www.codejam.co.za.