American multinational technology firm Cisco Africa has scaled up its investments in the technological advancement of SA, through various digital initiatives to bridge the country’s digital divide.
As part of its national strategy for 2022, Cisco Africa says it will accelerate its existing initiatives and introduce new projects, as it looks to bring remote communities to the digital economy.
The networking giant says it has made a multimillion-rand investment in SA’s digital development, premised on four key pillars: digital skills and talent development, digital inclusion, innovation and job creation.
During a virtual interview with ITWeb, Charmaine Houvet, public policy director at Cisco Africa, outlined the company’s plans for the year, noting Cisco will launch nine digital libraries across the country, as access to digital skills and literacy remain a challenge for marginalised communities.
Cisco is also working towards nationwide expansion of the Experience, Design, Go to Market and Earn (EDGE) Centres, which provide SMEs with the latest technologies, alongside training and enablement programmes.
“Cisco signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies to digitise nine libraries in SA. Our first pilot run in Germiston, Johannesburg, will be officially launched this month in partnership with the ministry.
“The libraries are equipped with ICT and aim to empower young people and entrepreneurs with digital skills offered through an e-learning course called NetAcad-CoE, offered through the Cisco Networking Academy. The three-month e-learning programme assists young people to gain an IT qualification,” noted Houvet.
The subjects offered at the digital library include: Introduction to Cyber security, IT Essentials, Cyber Security Essentials, Introduction to the Internet of Things, Linux Unhatched and Programming Essentials in Python.
Sub-Saharan Africa continues to experience a shortage of skills in the engineering and ICT fields – a challenge that endangers the country’s fourth industrial revolution progress, according to professional skills development firm Skills Development Corporation.
To help bridge this gap, Cisco is preparing to rollout the digital libraries to remote parts of the country.
“For the digital libraries, we’re looking at a district municipal model, which is a more complicated model as these will be based in the deep rural provinces and we are going to be working with young people who haven’t had exposure to tech devices and key digital skills.
“This is where the Cisco ambassadors come in to assist the participants with guidance and support required throughout the course,” according to Houvet.
Cisco will add more EDGE Centres across the country, in addition to the three existing centres in Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban.
“Cisco has spent millions on the training, equipment and enablement of SMEs through the EDGE Centres. We will be launching another centre in East London at the end of the month, with the aim of helping to develop SMEs in the digital age, to speed up their entry to market and, as a result, create new jobs for the local economy,” added Houvet.
The networking giant says it is also strengthening its collaboration with SA’s Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges to increase access to digital skills by tertiary students.
The partnership formed through the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), was established in 2017, and seeks to align TVET college curricula with ongoing developments in the fourth industrial revolution.
“The DHET has 50 TVET colleges on 270 campuses that enrol more than 750 000 students annually. All those colleges are now NetAcad registered,” she concluded.
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