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A cohort of 41 rural graduates have gone from not being able to use a computer, to having internationally-recognised certificates, following their graduation from a Cisco-backed one-year information and communication technology (ICT) training programme.
Cisco is a multi-national ICT company that develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, software, telecommunications equipment, and other high-technology services and products.
Graduates completed 11 modules that were carefully selected from the Cisco Networking Academy, which formed the course curriculum for their one-year diploma qualification.
The programme was offered at Lindamahle Innovation Centre in Baziya, outside Mthatha, where the graduation ceremony was held on February 16.
Lindamahle Innovation Centre founder and chief executive, Zine Nkukwana, said that the programme was aimed at bridging the digital divide by empowering rural youth with ICT skills, to fully participate in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR).
“Everybody these days talks about fourth industrial revolution, digital transformation, digital skills, and the digital economy, but people in rural areas don’t know these things.
“The vision I had was to go to the rural areas to give people the digital skills, so they did not get left behind in the much-talked about fourth industrial revolution,” said Nkukwana.
The Lindamahle Innovation Centre, established in 2022, is a non-profit company under Nkukwana’s company, Lindamahle Management Services.
She offered the training free of charge to the graduates.
“When we looked for people to enrol for the programme, we targeted people with any tertiary qualification; then those with only matric, as well as those without matric but with basic understanding of English as the language of instruction.
“We then put the applicants through a three-day digital literacy programme that we offered in partnership with the National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA), and those who passed that programme got enrolled for the one-year diploma programme,” Nkukwana added.
Sixteen of the graduates passed in the network maintenance officers’ stream, while the rest were from the community capacitation officers’ stream.
Despite socio-economic challenges, the cohort which was made up of 78 percent women, achieved a 100 percent pass rate, with 96 percent getting a cum laude achievement.
King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality executive mayor, Nyaniso Nelani, who was also in attendance at the graduation ceremony, praised the initiative for empowering the youth with skills that are needed for today’s digitally-dominated economy.
“The skills that the graduates have received are critical in fast-tracking the development of our economy, and it is my hope that the graduates will remain and invest their skills within the municipality and the Eastern Cape,” said Nelani.
“Our courses are globally-recognised, because we are industry specialists and even the certificates that the students get are globally recognised.
“As such employers and recruiters alike insist on Cisco-certified students, so we are confident that the graduates will get employed,” said Cisco South African business development manager for the Cisco Networking Academy, Ndileka Stuurman.
