Welcome to Mbasane Women in IT, a platform designed to connect employers with ICT women graduates who possess specialised skills and connect the graduates with their prospective employers. Our key role is to prepare graduates to acquire the requisite skills so that they are ready for the ICT industry’s needs.
This is an initiative born out of empathy from seeing the numbers of young graduates who are unemployed. According to Stats SA Q1: 2023, the graduate unemployment rate is 10,6% of the 32,9% SA official unemployment rate. This 10.6% is an increase from 5,5% in Q1:2013, demonstrating the situation is not improving. Based on my observation, confirmed by figures, I knew that something needed to be done to help with the situation. I am certain that everyone who makes an effort to reduce these numbers makes a difference.
Please allow me to share my story to explain why this is a sore point for me. When I chose to study BSc in Computer Science, I knew that opportunities in this field were endless, even though I didn’t know where my path would lead me. I stand to be corrected, but I think I was in the first era of the graduate recruitment programmes in South Africa, where companies were doing roadshows scouting for potential graduates from Universities.
As I sat for my final exams at the University of Transkei in 1995, I had an appointment letter from IBM South Africa, to report for work on the 2nd of Jan 1996 after having gone through a series of interviews.
I was filled with both anxiety about getting a job at a blue-chip company in the city of gold and gratitude for being one of those who got the opportunity. That marked the beginning of my career in IT, which saw me through to various entities and different roles and titles.
Through this background, I looked back and wondered how we find the ICT industry, which boasts of so many opportunities, that we, as a country, find ourselves complaining about skills shortage whilst we have unemployed ICT graduates.
That didn’t make sense to me until I dug deep and did my own research, which I believe stems from the gap between the curriculum of our institutions of higher learning and what the industry is looking for.
This forms the backdrop of why Mbasane Women in IT was founded. We are here to work with companies needing ICT graduates/entry-level personnel with specific skill sets and graduates needing a boost on what they have to be industry-ready.
We currently provide tailor-made training programmes to meet the client’s needs. We conduct workshops to tap into each graduate’s personal development that goes through our programmes. Our wish is to grow from strength to strength to be a hub of highly skilled women in IT.
We invite corporates, government, and ICT players to join us in our plight to make a difference and bring hope to those who are still making their career choices, for them to see and know that it is not all lost. There’s room to pursue ICT careers now and in years to come.
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