Holberton School opens its doors in South Africa

“We will help with the pent-up demand for qualified tech talent and education in South Africa and pursue our mission to help fill the IT talent gap in Africa.

“To get an idea of how big this talent gap is, we simply need to look at the number of software developers in Africa: 690,000 (with only about 130,000 in South Africa). This is compared to 4.5 million software developers in the US and six million in Europe,” the school said in a statement.

With its mass adoption of new technologies, Africa has the opportunity to create the next disruptive startups and the global leaders of tomorrow. But first, it needs to close this huge gap separating them from the US and Europe, especially as the demand for software developers is growing rapidly globally.

For instance, the demand for blockchain – the technology behind many cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin – engineers increases by 517% every year.

Julien Barbier, CEO of Holberton, said: “South Africa is an important step for the development of Holberton School in Africa. 100% of the first graduates from Holberton School Tunisia -which was the first campus to open in Africa - have found a job, both from local and foreign companies. We are very excited to expand our disruptive educational model to new countries and help fill the talent gap that prevents companies from hiring great software engineers and building their next products.”

Singular System partnership

Holberton School South Africa has partnered with Singular System. Singular System specialises in developing, implementing, and managing software that enables its clients to eliminate risks and complexity in their business processes. The company will offer full scholarships to the first 20 Holberton School South Africa students as part of this partnership.

The school said it aims to enrol around 30 students for the forthcoming cohort who will follow a 12-month programme.