Nedbank has launched the Nedbank DigiSkills online platform, in partnership with Microsoft and Afrika Tikkun. With the objective of helping South Africans acquire in-demand skills needed in a digital post COVID-19 economy, the initiative initially aims to upskill and create sustainable income opportunities for 1 000 South Africans by the end of 2021, with plans to grow this number to 5 000 in the longer term.
The low bandwidth DigiSkills platform will offer five free online short courses and learning tracks covering today’s most in-demand digital skills to underserved populations and South Africans impacted by the economic crisis that COVID-19 triggered.
The country continues to face the ongoing triple threat of unemployment, poverty and inequality, made worse by the pandemic: the country’s unemployment rate hit a record 34.4 percent in the second quarter of 2021 – equating to 7.8 million jobless South Africans – with the hardest hit being the youth and women in poorer and more remote areas. That builds on the 2.2 million jobs lost as a result of the pandemic.
“Digital skills provide the tools needed to mitigate poverty, unemployment, and inequality by improving employability, enabling livelihood opportunities and unlocking opportunities to actively participate in the emerging and competitive digital economy,” says Khensani Nobanda, Group Executive for Marketing and Corporate Affairs at Nedbank Group.
The DigiSkills programme aims to upskill economically displaced and underrepresented individuals with five learning paths covering the most critical technical and specialist skills needed by businesses today and in the future. The three technical short courses are Software Development, Data Analyst, and IT Administration. The two specialist, non-technical learning tracks are Project Management and Customer Service Specialist.
“It is imperative to meaningfully accelerate investment in digital skills and tangibly contribute to building a digital economy, and the time to act is now in order to both overcome challenges of unemployment as well as harness the positive benefit that engaging in the digital economy has on individuals, families, communities and the country as a whole,” says Onyi Nwaneri, CEO of Afrika Tikkun Services.
The programme is a focused, intentional and transformational approach to achieving these outcomes – as well as to creating shared value. “This speaks to solving social challenges with core business capabilities to drive both social impact and business value,” says Nobanda.
This latest partnership builds on the momentum of Microsoft’s Global Skilling Initiative, which has helped over 400 000 people in South Africa gain access to digital skills like software development, data analysis and customer service specialisation since June last year.
“These partnerships have been fundamental to scale programmes that help more people gain the critical future skills needed in the digital economy. We are committed to collaborating with partners such as Nedbank and Afrika Tikkun to provide the training, tools and platforms to boost employability and economic growth,” says Lillian Barnard, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft South Africa.
Those interested in equipping themselves with these in-demand digital skills can register for the programme here.
