By Savious Kwinika
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – THE City of Johannesburg has lauded a partnership with a leading multinational software corporation, which will culminate in 30 young and talented residents attending a ten-week skills development training course.
The programme, the result of a partnership between the city and software and technology solutions provider, SAP Africa, is in line with the city’s 2040 Growth and Development Strategy.
The strategy seeks to, among other things, create a Smart City and employment opportunities for the youth.
SAP Skills for Africa, as the programme is known, is a job-creation initiative to train young and unemployed graduates in relevant SAP topics – including financials, business intelligence and human resources- and place them on the path to a lucrative SAP career.
It focuses on driving innovation and entrepreneurship through critical thinking, preparing students for employment, and empowering them to significantly participate in the mainstream of the information, communication and technology (ICT) sector and the burgeoning economy.
After successfully completing the course, the students will be issued with internally recognised certificates and placed on internships at a number of SAP partners and customers involved in the initiative, including the
City of Johannesburg and its departments and entities.
Executive Mayor, Parks Tau, expressed excitement at the partnership with SAP Africa, which will see the students trained at SAP Africa in Woodmead.
“This partnership is not only empowering our youth, but it is also in line with the City’s strategy to create employment opportunities within the ICT sector,” said Tau.
Mehmood Khan, Chief Operations Officer at SAP Africa, commented.
“The SAP Skills for Africa programme not only reinforces the relationship between the City of Johannesburg and SAP Africa but also supports the city’s programme announced in May this year to Educate Digital Interns
(COJEDI) in modern age skills as part of the foundation phase of developing the Johannesburg Smart City plan,” said Khan.
The SAP Skills for Africa initiative has already been implemented with considerable success in countries such as Kenya and Morocco.
SAP Africa announced in September the launch of the South African chapter of the SAP Skills for Africa job creation initiative, which is committed to training 10 000 ICT consultants across the continent by 2020.
– CAJ News