596 enrol at MTN Skills Academy platform
EZULWINI – It is not all doom and gloom for pupils who may not be able to enrol into tertiary immediately. This is because MTN has opened an opportunity for school leavers to acquire digital skills and increase employment opportunities.
The giant mobile company has offered the chance for thousands of people to acquire and sharpen their skills through the skills academy platform, which provides free learning and training in various courses.
Currently, 596 students are enrolled on the platform, taking advantage of the 2 500 licences that are available on a revolving basis. This is also an opportunity for those who may not be able to enrol into tertiary immediately.
Between its launch in October last year and today, the MTN Skills Academy has seen 49 courses being completed.
The platform aims to provide access to digital and financial skills training across Africa. It is currently offered in seven countries which are Eswatini, Ghana, Cote d’ Ivoire, Uganda, Zambia, Cameroon and South Africa.
Its core intention is to bridge the gap between high demand and low supply through increasing digital skills and employment opportunities. “From career guidance, to digital training courses, the Skills Academy brings access to digital and financial skills to everyone across MTN’s footprint.”
Activity
The latest update on the progress regionally, indicates that Eswatini’s platform has been a hive of activity in the past three months with over 21 400 views; 2 300 unique users; and 1 400 signups.
About 709 people have taken advantage of the career guidance surveys offered by the platform, a very fundamental step, which has resulted in over 596 enrolments by 441 learners.
Among the seven countries, Eswatini’s platform is the third mostly utilised when measuring by the above activities.
Skills Academy is also accessible via the MTN Khanyisa App, which also helps kindle the commercial sense in young people who are out of school.
Through this App, MTN is also looking at agriculture as a key growth sector, which they can pivot because it was a low hanging fruit with a number of opportunities.
MTN Head of Corporate Services Sibusiso Nhleko described the app as a platform that will make sure all the youth is taken care of.
“So we thought we needed an application that would talk to the different segments of young people. And also not just tell them about information, which means we are looking at Khanyisa App creating the awareness about business opportunities out there in terms of what is available because sometimes we think the information is out there when people are not aware of it,” he said.
His observation is that young people tend to pick up quickly on digital skills, hence MTN is looking at the app being of assistance because it is now zero rated.
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“For us the zero rating is bridging the divide as well to say data should not be an issue for me. We believe that it will then afford the young person in Lavumisa, Lomahasha, Mshingishingini the same opportunity, wherever they are in the country; to access this info as long as they have coverage, which we believe is generally good in most areas.”
The main vision behind Khanyisa is to bridge the gap between out of school youth who is not in college and is hustling, which tends to be in no man’s land and youth in tertiary institutions, which is taken care of by organizations such as ENACTUS.
Nhleko said MTN was also looking at working with different partner organisations like NAMBoard, NMC, Dairy Board and the Ministry of Agriculture.
“The whole idea is not just limited to agriculture, but to look at other sectors as well, while we are looking at even e-commerce. You know how the digital space resonates with young people such that we even call the younger generation digital natives because they are already born in technology. They are busy doing a lot of things online in terms of trade, business, art, different opportunities that are presented online,” Nhleko said.