Posted by In today’s post-pandemic climate, standing out from the crowd with critical skills is becoming increasingly important. South Africa’s unemployment rate has hit a record high of 35.3%—the highest level since Statistics South Africa’s first Quarterly Labour Force Survey in 2008. This means that 7.9-million people remain jobless. So, how do we, as a country, rectify this?
HyperionDev’s Business Development and Relationships Manager, Rudi Mdima believes that “The private sector needs to play a bigger part in pulling our people out of unemployment, and learnerships focused on sought-after skills are the way to do it.”
HyperionDev’s 2021 Tech Graduate Futures Report shows 87% of executives are experiencing a tech skills shortage. Exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and Great Resignation, many industries rely on coding and highly skilled tech talent to remain competitive in the digital age. Yet, it is these very skills that are so scarce in South Africa.
To address the tech skills shortage, HyperionDev is launching a world-class, industry-relevant and highly practical learnership programme to service the South African market and African landscape. This work-based learning programme provides world-class tech skills for in-demand careers and leads to a National Qualifications Framework (NQF) registered certification.
Starting in June 2022 and running online for 12-months, the programme will enable participants to earn a National Certificate in Information Technology specialising in Systems Development. The curriculum is strategically structured with 30% theory and 70% practical tech studies. During the second half of their learning journey, learners will be placed with employer partners and given real-world exposure and outcomes-aligned tasks to complete, overseen by their assigned mentors.
On completion of the learnership, graduates will have the confidence and skills base to tackle junior roles in IT systems engineering, desktop support, IT support, computer or network support, business analysis, or database administration. These sought-after skills fortify modern businesses in an ever-evolving digital economy.
Graduates are also put through HyperionDev’s bespoke 90-day graduate programme, available on all of HyperionDev’s full bootcamps. The programme is designed to maximise graduates’ candidacy for job opportunities, and covers three levels of focused career development phases, namely: technical career readiness, alumni network, and introduction to the industry. By the end of the programme, graduates are equipped with the real-world skills needed to help them attain in-demand careers or to strengthen their position within their current company.
For HyperionDev Employer Partners, the learnership presents an opportunity to build and maintain a strong and future-proofed pipeline of key talent and young professionals. Mdima says, “Employer partners will also be in a position to apply for and take advantage of mandatory and discretionary grant funding from the Sector Education and Training Authority. Plus, they will benefit from tax deductions under Section 12H of the Income Tax Act, as well as B-BBEE points depending on the percentage of the organisation’s staff that are registered on the programme, along with bonus points should unemployed learners be absorbed.”
Learnerships are a win-win for everyone involved, with the biggest wins including being able to help the Government tackle the unemployment crisis in our country, improving South Africans’ livelihoods and closing the global tech skills gap.
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If you would like to find out more about our learnership programme and how this would benefit you as our employee partner, visit https://www.hyperiondev.com/corporate-services or reach out to our Partnerships team at partnerships@hyperiondev.com.
