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Preparing the next generation for AI and the digital world of work.

Preparing the next generation for AI and the digital world of work.

by | Dec 3, 2021 |

With the rapid growth of technology and the looming presence of the 4th Industrial revolution, the workers and employees of tomorrow will need to make AI more than a simple tool. AI will be their assistant, their co-worker and possibly even their manager.

Artificial Intelligence will be an everyday part of their lives. So it is vital that this generation of employee learns to use AI and Big data as effectively as possible. This process needs to begin sooner rather than later.

Preparations must be made to prevent businesses and people entering the workforce from falling behind industry trends. With proper training comes better understanding of these platforms. What are their weaknesses, limitations and their strengths?

This new generation must come to understand that AI and their abilities as employees benefit one another. There must be emphasis on the qualities that differentiate the two from one another. Such as human creativity, adaptability and interpersonal skills versus AI’s impressive response time and handling of large data streams.

While there must be consideration given to elementary and secondary education, the tertiary education sector is where this type of training is most important. Providing education into problem solving and ethics. With the introduction of AI systems, many new ethical dilemmas present themselves: From excluding prejudices based on race, gender and sexual orientation; to influencing automated decision making; to how a self-driving car balances the lives of its occupants with those of pedestrians.

The world needs well trained people and programmers who can make thoughtful contributions to these decision-making processes. We need to take the youth who are preparing to enter the world of work and ensure that they are prepared for what AI and Big data means for businesses. Hurdles that obstruct this process are lack of funding for computer programmes in the majority of schools, as well as a shortage of teachers with experience in computers sciences.

Some are calling on tech companies to compensate for this lack of governmental capacity. To begin investing into the next generation to enable them to understand and interact with the new tech environment. Within a few years their investment would pay off for them in providing a trained and tech savvy batch of new hires. We must begin this process of investing in the next generation as soon as possible. It will benefit not only them, but will pay off for all

Proposed Changes to BBBEE Codes of Good Practice

by | May 14, 2018 |

Register

The proposed amendments to the DTI Sector Codes were issued for public comment on the 29 March 2018. Many companies are struggling to maintain their existing scorecard levels under the amended codes, let alone now understand these proposed amendments. Join our next Community of Experts event led by Reabetsoe Nengwenani, Technical Specialist at the BEE Chamber to understand what these proposed changes mean as well as the resultant impact on your business if gazetted. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions to the BEE Chamber in this regard in order to clarify your understanding.

Programme outcomes
  • Introduction to Ifundi  and Ubuntu initiative ( 9.00-9.30am)
  • Discussion on the Proposed amendments to the BBBEE  codes(9.30-10.30am)
  • Q and A session with Industry Technical Expert (10.30-11.00)
  • Presentation by Anusha Mariemuthu on BEE Chamber ( 11.00-11.30)
  • Closing

Speaker's Details

Reabetsoe Nengwenani, Technical Specialist at The BEE Chamber holds a  B Com Accounting Degree (WITS), B-BBEE MDP (Unisa), Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration (WBS). Reabetsoe has extensive experience in B-BBEE transformation with previous experience in consulting and Transformation lead at a IT multinational company and also serves as a Trustee Member  on a Board Based Black Empowerment Trust. She is passionate about contributing towards initiatives that driving Economic Development for South Africa & driving initiatives that will see economic participation and growth for those previously disadvantaged.

Anusha Mariemuthu holds a B Com(Hons)-Cum Laude from the University Of Durban Westville and is an expert in the Transformation space , specialising in skills Development. Anusha has 13 years of  specialised experience implementing  sustainable  BBBEE and Transformation strategies, Change Management and Learning and Development.

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The difference between the legacy qualifications curriculum and the QCTO curriculum format

by | Sep 28, 2015 |

Written by: Hannes Nel

After approximately eight years in which the QCTO made some progress towards the development and registration of new occupational qualifications, stakeholders are beginning to wonder if the new curriculum model will ever replace the old (legacy) one and, more importantly, if it would be an improvement. We currently have the situation where legacy curriculums as well as QCTO model curriculums are registered on the NQF. It is not clear when all legacy qualifications will be removed from the NQF. However, it would be a sorry day if such curriculums are scrapped without being replaced by new and, hopefully, better ones.

The following are some of the most important differences between the QCTO curriculum structure and the legacy qualification curriculum format:

  1. Legacy qualifications are composed of a number of separate unit standards, each catering for the achievement of practical competencies (outcomes) theoretical knowledge (essential embedded knowledge) and critical cross-field outcomes.

QCTO qualifications split the legacy unit standards into three separate unit standards per unit of learning (module or subject), one providing for knowledge, one for practical skills and one for work experience.

  1. Each legacy unit standard has its own NQF level and number of credits. They can be offered as separate learning programmes or combined with other related unit standards to form a “bigger” learning programme. Credits for each unit standard can be read into the NLRD. At least some SETA Learner record databases allow this, but it is not clear if the credits are still transferred to the NLRD.

QCTO units of learning and unit standards cannot stand alone and no credits are allocated to them separately. Credits are allocated for the whole qualification. No credits can, therefore, be read into the NLRD for separate units of learning or unit standards, with the result that it would probably not make sense offering them as separate learning programmes either.

  1. Legacy qualifications are not compared internationally, although this should be done during the design process.

QCTO qualifications are compared internationally to ensure that South African qualifications are on par with international requirements and trends.

  1. Legacy qualifications and unit standards were initially designed by Standards Generating Bodies (SGBs). This process, however, was watered down considerably to working groups, probably because SGBs often did not function properly for various reasons.

QCTO qualifications are designed under supervision of a registered Development Quality Partner (DQP). This procedure is already questioned, probably because of the inability of some DQPs to perform and manage.

  1. Legacy qualifications and unit standards specify who can benefit from the qualification or unit standard in general terms, referring to job titles.

QCTO qualifications (not units of learning or unit standards) are specific in terms of the occupational profile of those who should benefit from the qualification, even specifying the OFO codes, occupational purpose, tasks and context. The occupational description that needs to be specified is so elaborate that it could well be a job profile or duty sheet.

  1. Although legacy qualifications and unit standards as well as QCTO qualifications require workplace experience, the QCTO qualifications are much more specific in this respect.

The writing of occupational curriculums is taking longer than initially anticipated, leading to discontent amongst stakeholders and rendering the process inefficient. The reason for the process being extremely time-consuming is, unfortunately, not because of thorough work but rather because of long periods of inactivity between meetings, different stakeholders joining the process at different times thereby often disrupting the smooth flow of the development process and some unnecessary bureaucratic procedures which adds no value to the process.

There are two rather important deficiencies in the current occupational curriculum format namely that too much duplication takes place and it would be difficult to compare it with HE and TVET curriculums for determining equivalence. Determining equivalence is necessary in order to achieve articulation of the three NQF sub-frameworks and articulation is necessary for opening pathways between different NQF sub-frameworks.

Already, however, some of the new curriculums are not structured in accordance with the QCTO format. Registration number 15952: Higher Certificate: Early Childhood Development, is an example of such a curriculum. One can probably argue that it is a Higher Education qualification and that it, therefore, need not follow the QCTO format. However, the Quality Assuring Body is given as the QCTO.

I intentionally did not discuss differences between the old ETQAs and the current DQPs because there are no substantive differences. The QCTO largely delegated the quality assurance function to what used to be ETQAs and now they are called DQPs.

Article sourced: Skills Universe 

 

3 Things Your Employees Want More Than Money

by | Aug 5, 2015 |

For founders, the long hours and the instability of building a start-up are endurable because of the potential pay-off in the distance: a lucrative IPO that makes those early days worthwhile.

But Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a Harvard Business School professor and author, writes in the Harvard Business Review that what motivates you is not necessarily what keeps your employees coming in day after day. Kanter says instead of dangling IPO dreams and money in front of your team, you should instead focus on giving them OPI — Opportunity for Positive Impact.

“Money can even be an irritant if compensation is not adequate or fair, and compensation runs out of steam quickly as a source of sustained performance,” Kanter writes. “Instead, people happy in their work are often found in mission-driven organizations where people feel they have positive impact on social needs.”

If your employees are working towards something important and meaningful, they will be motivated to come to work and more loyal to the team and mission. Kanter says real motivation requires what she refers to as “the three Ms” — mastery, membership, and meaning.

Make them masters.

Kanter says a boss needs to give their employees an opportunity to “develop deep skills” and become a master over their work. Employees take pride in learning, so give them the chance to learn a new skill with appropriate resources. “Even in the most seemingly routine areas, when people are given difficult problems to tackle, with appropriate and tools and support, they can do things faster, smarter, and better,” she writes.

Make them members.

Membership cannot be confused with exclusivity — your job is to make everyone feel welcome. But you should build a friendly environment where employees interact across departments. “Create community by honoring individuality,” she says. “Community solidarity comes from allowing the whole person to surface, which means going beyond superficial conformity to know what else people care about. Encourage employees to bring outside interests to work. Give them frequent opportunities to meet people across the organization to help them get to know one another more deeply.”

Give their job meaning.

Your employees will be motivated only if their job matters to the larger whole. If you make their role indispensable, then they will feel like they are needed and take their job seriously. “Repeat and reinforce a larger purpose. Emphasize the positive impact of the work they do. Clarity about how your products or services can improve the world provides guideposts for employees’ priorities and decisions,” Kanter writes. “As part of the daily conversation, mission and purpose can make even mundane tasks a means to a larger end.”

Read the original article on Inc.. Copyright 2013. Follow Inc. on Twitter.

Read more: http://bit.ly/1g9kbaU

Article sourced from: http://read.bi/1gK9j4c

Take a look at me now! i-Fundi’s graduates share their trials and tribulations

Take a look at me now! i-Fundi’s graduates share their trials and tribulations

by | May 5, 2015 | ,

JOHANNESBURG – They say you measure progress by looking at how far you have travelled in your journey.

For millions of people across South Africa, every dawn presents a new challenge. When the sun rises, in the East, bringing an African warmth and the hope of new possibilities, many others wake up to face defeat and rejection in a harsh socio-economic landscape. Unemployment is a crippling reality in South Africa today. Granted there are governmental strategies put in place to attempt to bridge the desperately gaping unemployment cavity, however, it is a fact which cannot be ignored.  There is a lack of educated, skilled workers in the market.  The bottom line is simply; the demand fails to meet the supply.

Undoubtedly, it is a struggle to bridge this gap because poverty and unemployment have made the future of the African child as fickle as the temperament of a new born.

Understanding the plight of adversity, i-Fundi undertook a project which followed the lives of its alumni, to see how big the strides education has made in their lives. A wise man once said, “Education is not the learning of facts but the training of the mind to think”. That wise man was Albert Einstein. For these pupils, education and opportunity have definitely been their saving grace.

Comfort Moeketsi Sebatie (24) worked as a construction worker, until he decided to change his circumstances. In 2012, he pursued a NQF 2 contact centre certificate with i-Fundi. Sebatie says deciding to pursue the qualification changed his life significantly. No longer a construction worker, Sebatie is currently employed and was recently made a permanent employee by his company, Altech Autopage Cellular.

“I had never worked in a call centre before so it was a great challenge to decide to study and start something new. The transition was vast as I was moving into a completely different field as I worked before. The change was very good for me because I got to learn a lot about customer service values, self-discipline, and the industry as well”, he says.

Reflecting on his journey, Sebatie now realises that he is in control of his dreams, and by proactively going after the life he has imagined, his mind has shifted to accommodate positive thinking; “obstacles are opportunities to thrive”.

Another one of i-Fundi’s graduates is Mpumelelo Ndalane (29), who shares her success story. Ndalane’s story is synonymous with the millions of students in South Africa who completed their matric qualification, but lacked the funds to study further at tertiary level. “i-Fundi gave me a good stepping stone to a better future”, she says. When Ndalane’s host employer, Standard Bank offered her the opportunity to study further, she grabbed the opportunity with both arms, and she thereafter obtained an NQF 2 Contact Centre Certificate. “I am currently an analyst at Standard Bank and further pursuing my studies in Contact Centre Optimization. Everything I have achieved is because of the experience I have gained from working since qualifying. The certificate I obtained from i-Fundi definitely opened doors for me”, she says.

Reddy Preeshan’s success story proves the fact that education really does open doors for you, and how far you climb the ladder to success is entirely up to the efforts you put in. Having also studied a qualification in Contact Centre Operation NQF 2, he is amongst the successful students who believe they would never have it if it wasn’t for the opportunity he received to pursue a learnership with i-Fundi. “Today I am proud to say that I am a Software Testing Manager. Before, I worked as a call centre agent, and was thereafter promoted to management level as a Service Delivery Manager”, he says. His journey to the top is certainly am inspiring one, which should be a point of reference to anyone who doubts their capabilities.

Remember, we want you to share your life journey with us. If you are interested in being part of this ‘success stories’ project, kindly email: nyeleti@i-fundi.com.

Visit our  website and have a look at all the various accredited courses and qualifications we have on offer. If you are interested, don’t hesitate to contact us on: 011-290-5900.

Join us on our social media. Our Facebook name is i-Fundi, and i-Fundi Learners. Follow us on Twitter, our handle is @ifundisa.