Microsoft has announced a collaboration with the Public Service Sector Education and Training Authority (PSETA) and Afrika Tikkun to expand the Global Skilling Initiative, which was launched last year with the aim of providing essential digital skills to at least 20 000 young people.
The emphasis is on developing South Africa’s digital skills capabilities and improving the employability of the country’s youth in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry by providing the physical footprint and infrastructure that these young people need to access digital skills training.
This public-private collaboration will use each partner’s individual and mutual capabilities to provide the support required to access the training. Afrika Tikkun, for example, hosts and facilitates access to a platform where young people can register, complete an evaluation, and begin their designated learning paths.
PSETA will assist unemployed students in taking advantage of this opportunity and will publicize the program through its networks to ensure that as many unemployed students as possible have free access to the best tools for improving their skills and capabilities.
This involves leveraging collaborations with other public sector institutions to provide access to libraries, computer laboratories, community centres, and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, as well as assisting with the accessibility required to engage in and complete the training and certifications that will improve their employability by taking them into the digital economy.
Since last June, the Global Skilling Initiative has assisted nearly 300,000 people in South Africa in gaining access to digital skills such as software creation, data processing, and customer service specialisation.
The initiative also includes the use of LinkedIn Skills Path to help companies better hire for skills; expanded access to LinkedIn’s Skills Graph to help individuals, employers, educational institutions, and government agencies create a common skills language to help improve workforce planning, hiring, and development programs; and Career Coach, a Microsoft Teams app powered by LinkedIn, to help individuals, employers, educational institutions, and government agencies improve workforce planning, hiring, and development programs.
Young South Africans interested in gaining these vital digital skills can learn more on the Microsoft microsite .
Also, all of the resources for the Global Skills Initiative are also available via this website.
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