NAIROBI,
Kenya, Sep 20 – Kenyan graduates studying Information Technology will now be
able to 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. The program will begin in January with the enrolment of
100 students who can start applying in October and Kenya ICT Board Program
Manager for Business Process Outsourcing Andrew Lewela revealed that they will
be in charge of the overall management of the programme and will provide
classrooms with necessary computer infrastructure. “IT spending will grow about
17 percent year on year, however IT employment will be less than 10 percent and
this appears to be widening,” he said.
“The plan
is to create what we call an authentic examination to test for certified
software developers. Many institutions have been focusing on the theoretical
side of things and forgetting the actual testing of how to test software and
make it secure,” he explained.
According to
the Julisha Report, a national ICT Market survey taken in 2011 by the Kenya ICT
Board, an estimated 9,600 professionals are added to the ICT market each year,
but a third of the company’s surveyed plan to contract external providers
because the present supply of skills do not meet business requirements in
various ways, including the currency of the courses taught as well as the need
for business specific training.
The
Julisha report reveals that the ICT sector directly employs an estimated 27,000
professionals and that software development (70 percent growth) and project
management (57 percent growth) are the most in-demand skills for the 2011-2013
periods and represent the areas with the widest skills gap.
The report
went on to say that there is 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 said that they will provide instructors, training
material and educational systems and that they aim to train 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,” he said.
“SAP
training will deliver valuable skills on software use, best business practices
and processes that will greatly benefit the trainees and their future
employers,” he explained.
Capital FM