DigiLink, a South African-based Youth-focused IT upskilling platform that offers training to unemployed youth to enable them participate in the tech economy now wants to fill 60 000 digital jobs currently available in South Africa.
Currently, South Africa has approximately 66 000 digital jobs available, 60% of which are suitable for first-time, entry-level workers.
Tshepo Makhanye, candidate support manager at DigiLink, in an interview with ITWeb said ,“we can’t do this on our own; we need to Partner with other stakeholders – employers, government, as well as other not-for-profit organisations.”
Founded in October 2020 and powered by Harambee,a Youth Employment Accelerator , DigiLink is a non-profit, tech-focused work integrated learning programme that connects employers with supervised, entry-level digital talent, with the aim to augment and support their digital delivery teams, while bridging the skills gap and bringing young people into the economy.
DigiLink offers work-seekers 12 months of on-the-job training to access and succeed in the world of high-value tech jobs. The initiative focuses on four streams: software development, software testing, data analysis and infrastructure operations.
Since its launch, DigiLink claims to have trained 160 youths over the past three years and now targets to train more to fill 60 000 digital jobs in South Africa.
Makhanye revealed the programme has a 98% absorption rate, with many taking up junior roles within the organisations they have been placed.
Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator is a pioneering not-for-profit social enterprise established in 2010 by Yellowwoods, which has been dedicated to tackling the pressing issue of youth unemployment in South Africa.
Harambee partners with government, business and civil society to increase the participation of young people within the economy.
Sandile Ngakane, marketing administrator at Harambee, said more than 1.1 million opportunities for work-seekers have been enabled, including learning and earning opportunities, jobs, internships, learnerships, as well as multi-faceted programmes. This has resulted in R24.9 billion income for work-seekers, he stated.
“The R24.9 billion is earnings that have been generated during the 13-year period,” explained Zengeziwe Msimang, chief communications officer at Harambee.
DigiLink initially started in Cape Town and now also operational in Johannesburg.