Bold business proposal to tackle digital skills challenge

One thing Covid has done is shine a spotlight on the pre-existing digital skills crisis in South Africa, and indeed around the developing world. A recent OECD paper analysed job postings among member countries and found a sharp increase in the demand for certain digital skills ushered in by the Pandemic. South Africa’s ‘Silicon Valley’ in Cape Town has over 450 tech firms and employs more than 40,000 people, but in the main the current Skills Development Levy and other initiatives have proven unsuccessful in producing sufficient future work ready skills at scale. Michael Avery spoke to Pieter de Villiers, Co-Founder and CEO of Clickatell and Chairman of SiMODiSA,

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Vukani Mngxati, CEO for Accenture in Africa about a bold new collaborative idea born out of SiMODiSA, to turn the skills crisis into an opportunity to make dents in youth unemployment at scale.