Against the backdrop of a 32,9% formal unemployment rate and a further 1,1% increase in youth unemployment, WeThinkCode_ has already placed 48% of the 360 students into roles in the professional services industry since January 2023. Whereas matchmaking and interviews for remaining students are ongoing with employer partners.
GIZ, implementing on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in cooperation with the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT), partnered with WeThinkCode to pilot three elective programmes for students enrolled in WeThinkCode_’s flagship 12-month NQF5 Systems Development training programme. The aim is to “place 80% of its students into internships before August, and eyeing a 91% permanent placement post-graduation” says Sethu Komani, Chief Commercial Officer at WeThinkCode_.
This performance is astounding and drives directly against the status quo, where 250,000 young people lost their jobs nationally in the first quarter of 2023. For this reason, WeThinkCode_ is also running a trial with TVET colleges to eventually replicate its success story nationally at scale.
WeThinkCode_ jointly launched its elective programme in October 2022 with the support of German Development Cooperation under the South African-German Digital Skills for Jobs and Income (DS4JI) project. This project is to establish specialised pathways into the digital sector for students. The rationale behind the pilot programme is that this will differentiate WeThinkCode_ graduates within the labour market and upskill them further to access opportunities they otherwise would not have with the generalist software development skills.
The electives were introduced in the final semester after students completed 12 months of training to develop their coding skills initially in Python and progressing to Java. Therefore, there was high confidence in the programme outcomes because of the foundation built before the pilot. The specialised elective includes three tracks which link closely to several digital skills listed in the 2022 Gazetted Critical Skills List. The programme aligns with one of the priority areas of the DS4JI, which focuses on demand-led innovative training to address skills required for the digital economy
Quality Assurance
Through WeThinkCode_’s partnerships with System Verification, a global software quality assurance company, WeThinkCode_ students can tap into their world-renowned curriculum to learn QA fundamentals. “This module teaches students how to build automated testing tools to run tests on the software being developed and report on the functionality of the technical components. This skill closely links to critical skill number 81, Computer Quality Assurance Analyst. We aim to provide the South African labour market more of these scarce technical skills so that the economy can benefit from having more of these jobs onshore,” adds Komani.
System Integration
The system integration elective trains students to connect different components into a single more extensive system that functions as one. This skill closely links to critical skills number 74, ICT Systems Analyst, and number 82, Computer Network and Systems Engineer.
Mobile Development
The mobile development specialisation focuses on equipping students with the skills to create software applications that run on a mobile device. This skill is closely linked to critical skills number 80, Applications Programmer.
“Each elective trains students to use tools specific to their specialised area expanding their tech stack and positioning themselves well to join organisations using similar tech stacks. This makes matching them to partners looking for specific technical skills much easier,” says Kelebogile Motlhamme, Placements Manager at WeThinkCode_.
The pilot monitored the journey of 360 students, tracking their quantitative performance and qualitative progress in these specialised electives. The end of the learning culminated in demo sessions where students presented their projects to a panel of WeThinkCode_ Performance Administrators and Senior Software Developers who curated the curriculum. Overall, 97% of students monitored in the pilot program successfully completed the elective training.
“The WeThinkCode_ Placements team continues to focus on securing job opportunities for students despite current economic conditions that have caused many businesses to hold back on hiring. We are determined to meet our placement targets and pathway our students into meaningful employment opportunities,” says Motlhamme.
