Broad-impact skills development initiatives boost empowerment efforts
Accenture Africa vows to continue driving meaningful and sustainable change, writes Pedro van Gaalen
Accenture Africa understands that the company’s ultimate success is intricately linked to SA’s prosperity as a nation, as well as the continent’s economic growth.
“We are therefore committed to unlocking Africa’s abundance by building sustainable economies that can address the needs of all Africans,” says Vukani Mngxati, Accenture Africa new CEO.
The continent is faced with several issues including a critical skills shortage, unemployment, as well as disadvantaged healthcare and educational systems. Digital has the potential to address these challenges, create necessary job opportunities and promote Africa’s GDP growth. “This can be done by working together and harnessing the possibilities that spring from digital disruptions and applying them for social impact. Together, we can enable a thriving, abundant Africa and create a brighter future,” emphasises Mngxati.
In SA, Accenture’s major contributions to social upliftment and empowerment focus on addressing grassroots challenges in areas such as skills development and job creation. This is achieved through a range of learnerships, internships and socioeconomic development and preferential procurement programmes that benefit both the ICT sector and society as a whole.
Key to Accenture’s empowerment efforts is a focus on skills development, which Mngxati believes must underpin all economic emancipation programmes if they are to be successful, with lasting impact.
“These initiatives not only cultivate the skills needed to sustain Accenture’s success as a high-performance business and that of our clients, partners and suppliers, but also improves the employability of young South Africans, which has significant downstream benefits for their families and their communities.”
In this regard, between 2011 and 2018 Accenture invested more than R200m and partnered with various tertiary learning institutions, including academies and universities, to provide leadership and skills development to black learners and employees. In the 2017 financial year alone, Accenture spent more than R36m on developing black employees as leaders and managers.
“Our internal skills development programmes aims to support the career progression of our diverse talent. These programmes include Driving Stronger Performance, Leading Extraordinary Teams, an interactive learning programme called Excelling in High Performance and the Accenture Future Leaders apprenticeship programme,” says Mngxati.
Outside of the organisation, Accenture has focused predominantly on three flagship socioeconomic development programmes. These drive sustainable economic growth by helping graduates to secure gainful employment or to start their own businesses.
One such initiative is the Skills to Succeed Academy. “This interactive, digital learning programme develops work readiness skills for the ICT and technical workforce and opens doors to employment opportunities,” says Mngxati.
PROGRAMMES
In SA, Accenture has focused its efforts on programmes run by the Accenture Education Trust and the Accenture Foundation, which have proved to be extremely successful.
“We work with five NGOs to identify and evaluate young previously disadvantaged individuals who exhibit significant potential. We recruit them in their respective locations and provide grants to enrol them in programmes that offer market-relevant and indemand ICT technical skills such as software development and programming.”
These programmes also expose candidates to the working world in a supported environment, which often leads to successful internships and, consequently, full-time employment. Between 2015 and 2018, 7,500 young people were trained and placed into jobs with a 90% success rate.
The Accenture Education Trust also provides scholarships to 30 financially disadvantaged school-leavers who are high academic performers and wish to study for a degree in computer science, information systems, IT, informatics or electronic or industrial engineering at any of six universities across the country.
This multiyear mentorship and career development programme covers tuition and accommodation costs and provides students with a laptop. Each student is assigned to an Accenture mentor who exposes them to the corporate environment to improve their chance at a successful career after graduation. This has proven to be an effective means to identify talent, with 72% of graduates joining the Accenture internship programme.
Accenture’s Connectivity, Electricity and Education for Entrepreneurship (CE3) programme is another skills development initiative which serves as a catalyst for local economic development, with a focus on rural communities.
The CE3 project developed as a collaborative partnership between Accenture, the University of Notre Dame and The Rural Development Company strengthens existing businesses, creates employment and builds new businesses through the provision of clean, affordable electricity, internet connectivity and ICT infrastructure.
“It also trains local residents in basic computing, entrepreneurship and workplace readiness skills to accelerate entrepreneurial outcomes in rural areas. Graduates are then able to serve local communities with the skills they acquire,” he adds.
Through this initiative, member farmers and local businesses now operate more efficiently as input costs are reduced. Opportunities to access the market are unlocked and the entire agricultural value chain is enhanced, boosting economic activity in the area and benefiting the community. To date, 2,500 young South Africans have benefited from the CE3 programme.
EXTEND IMPACT
Mngxati also plans to extend the company’s impact into urban areas with a focus on building the township economy. “Soon we will extend our delivery centre in Soweto, which will operate in partnership with a local university. By upskilling learners in the township where they live we will hopefully create hubs of competency that will generate income and empower the community in these areas, rather than bringing these skills into already affluent urban areas.”
And the benefits of another socioeconomic development initiative, the Accenture Employability Cadet Programme, will soon be realised as the first intake of learners graduate in 2019. This three-year programme benefits 10 students with a disability.
The participating candidates, who only require a matric certificate to qualify, receive a formal education and practical experience and mentoring in a real work environment. This empowers beneficiaries, producing motivated and skilled artisans who are capable of various job functions in any working environment.
At the end of the training, candidates obtain three nationally recognised NQF5 qualifications in project management and IT development, as well as three years of work experience in high-demand ICT skills, which improves their employability. Accenture plans to expand the 2019 programme to 15 cadets.
The combined impact of these initiatives between 2015 and 2018 has seen 6,000 disadvantaged youths empowered with ICT skills and delivered an 85% conversion rate into digital, software development and business process outsourcing jobs.
In terms of enterprise and supplier development, Accenture exceeds the broadbased black economic empowerment (BBBEE) requirements through its preferential procurement policies and its enterprise supplier development programme (ESDP).
In the 2017 financial year Accenture’s total BBBEE measured procurement from compliant companies exceeded 90% of total measured spend, and its enterprise and supplier development investment target of 5% of net profit after tax was also surpassed.
BBBEE COMPLIANT
“Accenture is committed to supporting companies that are BBBEE compliant over those that aren’t. Our procurement processes also promote the use of black- and black womenowned suppliers and business partners,” says Mngxati.
The Accenture ESDP also includes executive training and mentoring for SME business owners to assist them in building innovative, agile and sustainable businesses, and provides business development support via opportunities within Accenture’s supply chain or those of its clients. “We are also committed to paying invoices less than 10 days after their submission to assist SMEs with cash flow,” he adds.
Accenture plans to expand its programmes and initiatives in 2019. “We are committed to doing more to create greater opportunities and impact on even more lives. Despite achieving the highest BBBEE rating possible we are not content to maintain the status quo. We will continue to exceed the minimum requirements to drive meaningful and sustainable change within SA,” concludes Mngxati.