Cloud solutions company Oracle yesterday welcomed 43 learners from disadvantaged backgrounds as part of their Oracle Partner Campus Learnership programme.
The skills development initiative is a partnership between Oracle and IT services company EOH, which will deliver a 12-month programme where learners will be trained through a structured learning process of theoretical learning, on-the-job training and practical experience in business analytics and database technology.
According to Oracle, the company identified a need to not only deliver an internship programme in business analytics and database technology, but to also collaborate with their more than 350 partners within the Oracle ecosystem.
Their partners are SMEs who have identified gaps within their own IT departments. Through the learnership programme, learners will be placed and receive on-the-job training within these enterprises.
Advocate Stefan Diedericks, alliance and channel director at Oracle SA, says the Oracle Partner Campus is focused on delivering sustainable skills development within the ITC sector. He adds the company identified a specific need to engage their partners on this programme in order to deliver a joint service to their customers.
In SA there are huge opportunities in areas such as job creation, education and development within the ICT sector, which allowed Oracle to develop proudly South African collaborations, he continues.
"These partnerships will develop SMEs which will in turn create independent software that is based on the Oracle technology, taking it out into the African continent and changing the lives of Africans while creating intellectual property that is growing," he asserts.
According to Diedericks, the campus programme is divided into two parts: practical and theory. The theory aspect, which will be delivered in the classroom, will take place a few days each month, while the job training will takes place in the workplace where learners will spend most of their time.
Patrick Hijlkema, executive: Learning and Development at EOH Business Process Outsourcing, says it's important for his company to engage with partners like Oracle as job creation is key, not only to SA, but to Africa as a whole.
"AT EOH we are currently working on an education drive called the EOH job creation initiative, where we aim to create 20 000 jobs by 2020.
"This is the key to getting young people enthusiastic, skilled and add value to the ITC industry in a relatively short time frame, if we implement these programmes at a larger scale we can make a dent in youth unemployment and grow the SA economy," he asserts.
According to Oracle, the learners, aged between 22 and 25 years, will be divided into two groups. One will specialise in business analytics, which focuses on business intelligence and analytics. The second group will specialise in development and database technology, focusing on Java-based technology.
Those who will receive training in development and database technology will receive the technical learning and will work as junior developers or junior database administrators, says the company.
Diedericks adds those in the business intelligence space will be learning how to build business intelligence and analytics dashboards and practically executing those projects as database administrators, developers and BI implementation controllers.
"The learners who complete successfully will receive a learnership certificate from SITA after the 12-month period the contract comes to an end and there is then an immediate opportunity within the SME partner," he concludes.
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