The Kenyan graduates studying IT will undergo free high
level SAP certification training, thanks to a three year partnership between
the Kenya ICT Board and leading enterprise application software provider SAP.
The training program dubbed “SAP Skills for Africa” is aimed
at improving the employability of university graduates. And it will begin in January
with the enrolment of about 100 students who will start applying in October.
The Kenya ICT Board Program Manager for Business Process Outsourcing
Andrew Lewela said that they will be in charge of the overall management of the
programme and will also provide classrooms with necessary computer infrastructure.
He further revealed that IT spending will grow to about 17
percent every year however employment under this sector will be less than 10
percent and this appears to be increasing.
This initiative therefore is set to create an authentic
examination that will test for certified software developers. Many institutions
have focused on the theoretical side of things and forgotten the actual testing
of how to test software and make it secure.
According to the Julisha Report, a national ICT Market
survey taken in 2011 by the Kenya ICT Board, about 9,600 professionals are
added into the ICT market every year. however, a third of the company’s surveyed plan to
contract external providers because the present supply of skills do not meet
business requirements in the sector.
The report further reveals that the ICT sector directly
employs about 27,000 professionals and that software development and project management
are the most demanded skills for the 2011-2013 periods and represent the areas
with the widest skills gap.
The report also indicated that there is very little
visibility on the demand for specific skills, suggesting that greater and
closer collaboration is needed between education institutions and businesses to
determine the exact mix of skills needed in the market.
To address this issue, SAP Africa CEO Pfungwa Serima revealed
that they will provide instructors, training materials and educational systems
and that they aim at training at least 500 students for free and get them
employed within the next three years.
The SAP Skill for Africa programme aims at ensuring that
each and every university graduate is equipped with the skills necessary to
enter the job market and not only gain economic stability and prosperity, but
also to be able to plough back into the ecosystem.
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